Hyundai Mobis Co., South Korea's leading auto parts maker, said Friday its second-quarter net profit rose 7 percent on-year due to gains in equity investments in affiliated companies. Net profit for the April-June period came to 997.7 billion won (US$720.1 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with a profit of 932 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating profit reached 636.1 billion won, down 4.2 percent from a year ago. Sales fell 6.6 percent to 14.65 trillion won. The net income exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 977.3 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. A company official said the increase in net income was attributed to shareholding gains from affiliates under Hyundai Motor Group. Hyundai Mobis said its weakened operating profit and sales was likely impacted by the decline in production by its automaker clients amid growth stagnation in the eco-fr iendly automobile market. By business division, the company's module and core parts business recorded sales of 12.99 trillion won in the quarter, down 10 percent from last year. On the contrary, sales of the company's after-sales parts business rose to 2.7 trillion won, up 9.9 percent from a year ago. Hyundai Mobis said it achieved an order intake of US$2.32 billion from global clients during the January-June period, approximately 25 percent of its annual order target of $9.34 billion. The company said it plans to continue aggressive sales activities in the second half of the year, when the major order plans are concentrated, to achieve the annual target. Source: Yonhap News Agency