[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s largest construction material supplier LG Hausys will suffer from the underperformance of materials business in the third quarter, according to Hana Financial Investment on Oct. 7.

The securities firm lowered the target price to 140,000 won (US$125.34) from 194,000 won, saying that its operating profit in the third quarter will fall 11.1 percent to 40.8 billion won on-year, and sales will slip to 717.4 billion won.

“Materials division, in particular, will see a sharp fall in sales and operating profit due to the strikes and failure to acquire CSP,” said Chae Sang-uk, an analyst at Hana.

He maintained a “buy” recommendation, though, saying that the stock price has already fallen and the construction material business still has great potential.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)