Socar Posts First-Ever Q1 Profit

Mobility platform Socar recorded its first-ever operating profit in Q1 since its establishment, firmly establishing a streak of three consecutive quarters of profit. Q1 2025 revenue surged by 45.2% year-on-year to 131.5 billion won, setting a new quarterly record. Notably, operating profit reached 1.4 billion won, an improvement of a whopping 12.1 billion won from a 10.7 billion won deficit in the same period last year, proving the successful normalization of its profit structure. This performance improvement is attributed to the successful implementation of the 'Socar 2.0' strategy. The core of this strategy lies in maximizing the lifetime value (LTV) of vehicles, stable growth of Socar Plan, and enhancing asset efficiency. Specifically, Socar extended the average vehicle operating period by more than 12 months compared to 2023, and through a strategy of selling used cars when their value is maximized, it generated 42.6 billion won in used car segment revenue even in the off-peak Q1, driving overall performance. This is a significant growth compared to last year when used car sales were halted. The core car-sharing segment, including short-term car-sharing and Socar Plan, recorded 83.1 billion won in revenue, a slight decrease of 0.9% year-on-year. However, looking solely at short-term car-sharing, it achieved 74.6 billion won in revenue, a 1% growth, through strategic vehicle redeployment and enhanced operational efficiency. Socar Plan's revenue slightly decreased due to the end of aggressive marketing last year, but its gross profit (GP) turned from a deficit to a surplus, maintaining a stable average monthly contract volume of 4,000 units, firmly establishing itself as a core business model for the company. In the platform segment, parking platform 'Modoo-ui-Parking Lot' recorded 2.3 billion won in revenue, a 20% growth year-on-year through expanded private and public partnerships, solidifying its position as a new revenue stream. On the other hand, 'Socar Elecle', an electric bicycle sharing service, recorded 3.5 billion won, a 17% decrease year-on-year, due to restructuring efforts such as adjusting the proportion of direct operations and franchises and withdrawing from low-demand areas. However, these measures have improved per-device profitability and operational efficiency, and performance improvement is expected from Q2 onwards. Socar plans to secure continuous growth engines this year by further advancing its vehicle operation strategy and expanding cross-use of car-sharing with Socar Airlines. Supported by these structural changes, the company expects to expand its operating profit every quarter this year. Park Jae-wook, CEO of Socar, emphasized, "By focusing on increasing revenue and profit per vehicle, we will generate substantial profits through profit-oriented management for the remainder of this year."