Seah Besteel Holdings Corp. on Thursday reported its first-quarter net profit of 16.1 billion won (US$11.6 million), down 71.7 percent from a year earlier.

The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 21.3 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 71.6 billion won a year ago. Sales fell 15.5 percent to 953.1 billion won.

The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 8.4 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Source: Yonhap News Agency