Korea Electric Power Corp. said Sunday that it posted a net profit of 15.2 billion won in the first half of this year, up 58 percent from a year ago.

The company saw its sales increase more than 20 percent to 630 billion won in the same period.

Its brisk earnings were mainly driven by thermal power projects the company secured in seven countries in the Middle East and Asia, KEPCO said.

The company is also expected to receive dividends of 266 billion won ― 210 billion won in the first half and the rest in the second half of the year ― from its overseas units this year.

“We are exerting our efforts to secure 20 percent of our sales from overseas by 2020. We believe our overseas projects could help us reduce our debt, create more jobs abroad and slow down our need to raise domestic electricity fees,” the state-run power company said in a press release.

(baejisook@heraldcorp.com)