LG on track to post second-highest operating profit in history

It looks like business has been good for LG in the first quarter of the year. The company said its operating profit is estimated at 922 billion won, which is around $812 million. This is well above market expectations and represents an 82.4 percent increase when compared with the same period last year.

The company’s revenue has also increased. LG generated 14.6 trillion won (around $12.8 billion) during the first three months of the year, up by 9.7 percent when compared with the previous year. This is the second best quarter for LG in its history in terms of both operating profit and revenue. The finalized earnings report will be released later this month.

Industry watchers believe that the improved profitability of the company’s TV and home appliance businesses is one of the major reasons for the great financial results. LG has been focused on selling a lot of premium products in the recent past, including high-end home electronics under the LG Signature brand.

Its OLED TVs have been selling well and currently make up 10 percent of the company’s TV sales. This percentage is expected to increase to 15 during this year, which should allow LG to bring in even more money in the future.

Another reason for the high financial numbers is that the tech giant managed to reduce losses from its smartphone business. The G6 has proven to be a lot more popular than its successor, the G5. However, the smartphone didn’t have a lot of impact on the financial performance in the first quarter of the year, mainly because it was only released in March.

Headline deja vu: Samsung predicts second-highest operating profit ever in Q1, 2017