KT&G Corp., South Korea's dominant tobacco company, said Thursday its fourth-quarter net profit nearly tripled as exports increased despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Net profit for the three months ended December jumped to 307.71 billion won ($276 million) from 116.83 billion won a year earlier helped by robust overseas sales of tobacco products, the company said in a statement.

"The seven-year supply contract signed with a Middle Eastern company early last year and increased exports to the United States, Russia, Japan and emerging markets buoyed the bottom line," it said.

Increased profits from property investments also helped the quarterly results, the company said.

Operating profit also jumped 35 percent to 337.99 billion won in the fourth quarter from 249.90 billion won a year earlier. Sales climbed 12 percent to 1.34 trillion won from 1.19 trillion won during the same period.

For the whole of 2020, net income rose 13 percent to 1.17 trillion won from 1.04 trillion won a year ago.

Full-year operating profit rose 7.5 percent to a record high of 1.48 trillion won from 1.38 trillion won. Sales were up 6.8 percent to a record 5.3 trillion won from 4.96 trillion won. (Yonhap)