The headquarters of Hyundai Engineering & Construction in central Seoul is seen in this undated file photo. Yonhap

Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Hyundai E&C) said Friday its first-quarter earnings jumped nearly 40 percent on strong housing and overseas business.

Consolidated net profit came to 208.4 billion won ($150.9 million) in the January-March period, up 38.4 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating profit surged 44.6 percent on-year to 250.9 billion won, and revenue spiked 41.7 percent to 8.55 trillion won.

The first-quarter operating profit was 23.5 percent higher than a median market estimate of 203.1 billion won in a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

First-quarter sales accounted for nearly 29 percent of its full-year revenue target of 29.7 trillion won.

Hyundai E&C said brisk domestic housing business combined with resilient overseas projects to generate stellar sales and earnings for the last quarter.

In the first three months of the year, Hyundai E&C won orders worth 9.52 trillion won, up 60.3 percent from a year earlier and amounting to some 33 percent of the full-year order goal of 29 trillion won.

As of end-March, its order backlog stood at 91.25 trillion won, up 1.7 percent from three months earlier.

Hyundai E&C shares closed 2.62 percent up at 33,250 won ($24.1) on the Seoul bourse Friday, outperforming the broader Korea Composite Stock Price Index's 1.63 percent drop. (Yonhap)