FOREIGN TECH GIANTS' S. KOREAN UNITS SEE EARNINGS TUMBLE IN 2003.

SEOUL, June 1 Asia Pulse - South Korean affiliates of foreign high-tech giants saw their earnings slump more than 40 per cent last year due to weak private consumption and corporate spending here, a Seoul-based technology research house said in an annual survey Tuesday.

The combined operating profit of 12 foreign high-tech companies in South Korea plunged 42.5 per cent to US$77 million in 2003 from $160 million the year before, the Knowledge Research Group survey showed.

In the same period, sales declined 4.3 per cent to $3.32 billion, the survey said.

The surveyed companies were the affiliates of Hewlett-Packard Co., Motorola Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. Unisys Corp., Intel Corp., SAP AG, EMC Corp. and Computer Associates Inc.

For all of 2003, only three affiliates -- personal computer maker Hewlett-Packard, business software vendor SAP and storage giant EMC -- experienced growth in their sales, the study said.

Analysts said contraction in private consumption, poor facility investment and other unfavorable factors eroded profits.

"Lingering fragility in household credit and conservative corporate capital expenditures were the main reasons for the ...