Hyundai 2001 Annual Report Download - page 9

Dear shareholders,
customers and partners.
Thank you for sharing your time to
attend our general shareholders’
meeting. This past year has been one
filled with challenges and notable
accomplishments. We are indebted to
you for your support and encouragement
which enabled us to achieve an all-time
sales record of 22.5 trillion won based
on sales of 1,580,000 units. Of the total,
the domestic market accounted for
730,000 units and the overseas market
850,000 units.
While we are proud of this
achievement, an even more striking
measure of our performance is that
Hyundai’s growth was evenly distributed
between the domestic and overseas
markets—the mark of a truly global
player. In the wake of the tragic 9/11
incident, major automakers such as GM,
Ford and DaimlerChrysler faced
deteriorating market conditions and a
decline in demand. In the face of such
unfavorable conditions, we managed to
post strong growth in the sales of high-
value added vehicles such as Santa Fe
and Grandeur XG which helped
enhance our profitability. It was an
important development demonstrating
that the quality of Hyundai cars is
beginning to earn widespread
recognition.
Leading international media have
been providing a fair and objective
evaluation of our performance. Business
Week, one of the world’s most-
respected economic magazines,
reviewed Hyundai’s success in a Dec.
17, 2001 cover story. In a recent issue,
Fortune picked Hyundai as one of ‘the
four most respected companies in Asia.’
The standing of the Korean auto
industry was further elevated by
Chairman Chung Mong-Koo’s induction
into the Automotive Hall of Fame which
awarded him the Distinguished Service
Citation, considered the industry’s top
honor.
The successes achieved over the
past year are the direct result of
demands made by our shareholders and
our obligation to serve them. In
restructuring our organization and
expanding our product line-up, we
sharpened our focus on profitability
while leveraging new technology to
improve efficiency and productivity. As a
result, last year’s net profit reached 1.16
trillion won, up 79 percent from the
previous year. Our return on common
equity also jumped to 14 percent from 9
percent the prior year.
Alongside the improvement in
business results, we are happy to report
excellent progress in the improvement of
our financial structure: Our Iiability-to-
equity ratio has been further lowered
from 136 percent at the end of 2000 to
116 percent in 2001 while the debt-to-
equity ratio has shrunk from 64 percent
to 54.3 percent. Accordingly, we have
been able to secure the foundations for
a sound capital structure that places us on
par with the world’s top-ranked automakers.
Even as we establish impressive
benchmarks for revenue growth, we
have been taking steps to increase
value for the shareholder. Accordingly,
shares worth 170 billion won were
retired in March 2000, including 10
million common stock and one million
preferred stock in order to reduce the
amount of shares in circulation. We have
also steadily expanded our investor
relations activities to promote
transparency and build better avenues
of communication with institutional
investors, analysts and credit
assessment institutions at home and
abroad.
As a result, the percentage of
shares owned by investors outside of
Korea rose past 50 percent by the end
of 2001, up from 40 percent the prior
year. Over the course of the past
calendar year, Hyundai’s stock price
also climbed from 11,700 won to 26,900
won. The aggregate value of listed stock
including preferred issues doubled from
3 trillion won to 6.5 trillion won during the
same period. In May 2001, Moody’s and
S&P raised their credit rating of Hyundai
to Ba2 and BB, respectively.
P RESIDENT ’ S
M ESSAGE
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2001 Annual Report Hyundai Motor Company