South Korea's LG Electronics Inc 066570.KS said on Thursday its first-quarter operating profit rose 82 percent from a year earlier to its highest in almost eight years on the back of healthy sales for its appliances and television businesses. LG Electronics' sales also reached record first-quarter high of 14.7 trillion won, up 10 percent from a year ago.
The South Korean giant once again credited its financial growth to strong sales generated from its home appliance and air solutions division, particularly in Asia and Latin America.
The firm's net profit in the January-March period reached KRW 835.7 billion ($739.4 million or roughly Rs. 4,725 crores), up 322 percent from KRW 198.1 billion in the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement.
Other home appliances exclusively produced by LG, such as the garment steamer known as Styler, and some air purifiers helped boost the profit.
Operating profit during the period was KRW 921.5 billion (roughly Rs. 5,210 crores), up 82.4 percent. Net income reached 835.7 billion won, more than quadrupling compared with a year earlier.
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The phone-making unit's operating loss had grown from 202.2 billion won in the first quarter of last year to 467 billion won in the fourth quarter of the same year, before falling to 0.2 billion won in the first quarter of this year. North and Latin America were the two biggest markets for LG's smartphones.
LG Mobile Communications Co reported revenues of 3.01 trillion won, an increase of 4 per cent quarter on quarter and 2 per cent year on year, driven by the launch of the flagship LG G6 smartphone and new mass-tier models.
"Continued investments in R&D and growth are expected to continue to affect profitability this year", the company said.
"We expect a high-single digit increase in revenue in Q2 versus the previous quarter", LG said in its earnings document.
