Samsung Engineering Co., one of South Korea's largest industrial plant builders, said Friday that it swung to a net loss in the third quarter due to massive losses in overseas projects.

Net loss reached 525 billion won ($494 million) in the July-September period, compared with a net profit of 124 billion a year earlier, the Seoul-based company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales dropped 32 percent on-year to reach 1.9 trillion won over the cited period. The builder also posted an operating loss of 746 billion won in the third quarter, compared with a 189 billion won profit a year earlier.

The builder said its operating loss reached more than 1 trillion won in the first nine months of this year. (Yonhap News)