SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Hyundai Motor said on Thursday that its first-quarter net profit had halved from a year ago, falling significantly short of estimates, as a persistent weakness in U.S. and China sales offset stronger business at home.
Hyundai, which together with affiliate Kia Motors is the world's No.5 automaker, reported a quarterly net profit of 668 billion won ($619.15 million), versus 1.3 trillion won a year ago.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S had on average expected a net profit of 1 trillion won.
Hyundai posted an operating profit of 681 billion won and sales of 22.44 trillion won for the January-to-March quarter.
($1 = 1,078.9000 won)
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
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