LG Electronics recorded its highest sales in the third quarter owing to the booming TV and home appliances business. Its operating profit surpassed 1 trillion won in the first quarter of this year, and expected to mark over 700 billion won in the second and third quarters each, posting a record high for the whole of 2018.
Its home appliances and TV business enjoyed a favorable result and the automotive parts business was active, but its smartphone business recorded losses for the sixth consecutive quarter.
LG Electronics made a public notice on Oct. 25 that its sales and operating profit came to 15.4 trillion won and 748.8 billion won during the third quarter of this year, up 1.3% and 45.1% , respectively, from a year ago.
Compared to the previous quarter, sales increased 2.7 percent while operating profit decreased 2.9 percent. Based on the third quarter alone, sales are the highest ever, and operating profit is the highest since the third quarter of 2009 (851 billion won).
As a result, accumulated sales and operating profit for the first three quarters of this year were 45.56 trillion won and 2.62 trillion won, respectively, up 2.6 percent and 25 percent from the same period last year.
As its total sales and operating profit of this year are expected to reach 62.4 trillion won and 3.2 trillion won, breaking all of its previous records of 61.3 trillion won in sales and 2.68 trillion won in operating profit recorded last year.
"As positive assessment continues on LG smartphones such as its strategic smartphone G7 in the upper half and the sales of low-priced models such as Q7 and Q8 remain robust, LG Electronics has been making improvements in the cost structure and the platform and modularization strategy," an LG spokesman said.