Seoul: Donations by South Korea's major companies inched up 4.2 percent in the January-September period from a year earlier, a corporate data tracker said Sunday. CEO Score surveyed 264 firms out of the country's top 500 companies by sales for their donations in the first nine months. Their combined donations rose to 1.52 trillion won (US$1.09 billion) in the nine-month period from 1.46 trillion won a year ago, according to the data tracker. According to Yonhap News Agency, the value of their donations pales in comparison with the operating profit they earned for the first three quarters. Their overall operating profit jumped 64 percent to 157.91 trillion won from 96.2 trillion won over the cited period. Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Corp. topped others in terms of the value of donations. The two carmakers' donations reached 155.2 billion won in the nine-month period, followed by state utility Korea Electric Power Corp. with 154.4 billion won, Hana Bank with 152.3 billion won, and Samsung E lectronics Co. with 141.2 billion won. Hyundai and Kia's donations fell 26 percent on-year from 209.9 billion won in the nine-month period of last year, while Samsung Electronics' declined 21 percent from 179.6 billion won. In contrast, Hana Bank's donations jumped by the most from 74.5 billion won.