[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s 81 business groups posted a 46 percent on-year jump in their combined operating profit last year, a local corporate monitoring website said on Feb. 14.

Businesses that have released their preliminary earnings reports so far and are among the country’s 100 largest conglomerates posted 155.06 trillion won (US$143 billion) in operating profit on sales of 1,525.25 trillion won, CEO Score said in a statement.

Operating profits surged 45.8 percent, with sales gaining 11.7 percent.

Their average net profit also soared 49 percent on-year to 121.69 trillion won last year as chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix reported robust earnings results, it said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)