SEOUL: South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co on Thursday reported a 31% rise in fourth-quarter profit that missed analyst expectations due to unfavourable exchange rates as well as one-off costs related to the sale of its Russia plant in December.

Hyundai Motor, the world’s No.3 automaker by sales with its affiliate Kia Corp, reported a net profit of 2.2 trillion won ($1.65 billion) for the October-December period versus a profit of 1.7 trillion won a year earlier.

That compared with a 2.9 trillion won average forecast by LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted towards estimates from analysts who are more consistently accurate.

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In December, Hyundai Motor said it would take a 287 billion won ($219.2 million) loss on selling its plant in Russia, where operations have been suspended since March 2022.

Shares in Hyundai Motor were trading up 2.4% after it reported its earnings, outperforming a flat for the benchmark KOSPI.