Daehan Electric Wire (001440.KS) Q1 2026: Record ₩60.4B Operating Profit; Hedge Losses Flip Net to Red
A structural surge in power grid, data center, and offshore wind demand drives Daehan to its strongest operating quarter on record — but mark-to-market derivative and FX losses of ₩65.1 billion push consolidated net income into the red, a hedge accounting timing effect that obscures an otherwise landmark quarter.
Source: Q1 2026 Quarterly Report (72nd Fiscal Year, 1st Quarter) — Filed with DART | Consolidated Financial Statements | Unit: ₩ billions
Daehan Electric Wire delivered its most profitable operating quarter in its tracked history in Q1 2026, with operating profit surging 123% year-on-year to ₩60.4 billion as the operating margin expanded from 3.2% to 5.6%. Revenue climbed 26.6% to ₩1.08 trillion — also a quarterly record — driven by accelerating demand across three structural growth vectors: domestic grid reinforcement, data center infrastructure build-outs, and offshore wind power installations. The translation from top-line to earnings was unusually efficient: a 26.6% revenue gain produced a 123% operating profit increase, implying an operating leverage multiplier of approximately 4.6x, underpinned by a gross margin expansion from 7.0% to 9.9% as premium HVDC and submarine cable products captured a larger share of revenue mix. Below the operating line, mark-to-market losses on copper and FX hedging positions ballooned finance costs to ₩77.8 billion, turning a ₩29.4 billion consolidated net profit in Q1 2025 into a ₩6.8 billion net loss; on a controlling-shareholder basis, the reversal ran from +₩28.0 billion to -₩7.4 billion. The ₩65.1 billion in derivative and FX evaluation losses is predominantly non-cash — the economic flip side of hedge instruments protecting real-goods revenues and costs — and the more durable signal for the quarter is the ₩3.83 trillion order backlog, a record equivalent to just over one year of FY2025 revenue.
