(ATTN: ADDS details throughout, photo; RECASTS headline)
SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Yonhap) -- Naver Corp., South Korea's largest online portal operator, said Wednesday its third-quarter net profit jumped nearly 40 percent from a year earlier due to a one-off factor.
Its net income totaled 734.7 billion won (US$510.2 million) on a consolidated basis for the July-September period, up 38.6 percent from 530.1 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 500 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
Operating income for the three-month period ended in September rose 8.6 percent on-year to a record 570.6 billion won. Sales increased 15.6 percent to 3.13 trillion won.
Naver attributed the sharp rise in net profit to a one-off gain after Line Man Wongnai, a delivery app operator in Thailand, was included in its consolidated balance sheet.
Naver's flagship search platform unit saw its sales grow 6.3 percent on-year to 1.06 trillion won, driven by its new search service powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Sales from the commerce unit jumped 35.9 percent on-year to 985.5 billion won in the third quarter, and revenue from the financial technology unit improved 12.5 percent to 433.1 billion won.
The content unit saw its revenue increase 10 percent to 509.3 billion won over the cited period, and sales from the enterprise business advanced 3.8 percent to 150 billion won.
"Keeping up with the upcoming AI agent environment, we will broaden AI integration across wider fields to enhance our core competitiveness while also striving to discover future growth engines for global expansion," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Choi Soo-yeon said.