LG Electronics Inc. said Thursday its operating profit declined in the first quarter, but its sales hit a record high for a first quarter on robust sales of home appliance products.
Its operating profit for the January-March period came to 1.33 trillion won (US$966 million), down 10.8 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue rose 3.3 percent to 21.09 trillion won, marking the highest among any first-quarter results, while its net profit reached 585.4 billion won, up 7.1 percent from a year earlier.
The operating profit was 5.5 percent higher than the average estimate, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. The estimate of the net profit was not available.
LG Electronics said intensifying market competition and increased marketing costs undermined its bottom line, but the first-quarter profit exceeded 1 trillion won for the fifth consecutive year since the first quarter of 2020.
But the strong performance of its home applian
ce division and business-to-business sector contributed to the record high sales for the first quarter.
Sales of LG Electronics’ mainstream home appliance business rose 7.2 percent on-year to a record 8.6 trillion won, with an operating profit of 940.3 billion won.
Its automotive parts businesses, regarded as the company’s new growth engine, posted 2.66 trillion won in sales and 62 billion won in operating profit.
The company earned 3.49 trillion won in TV sales, with 132.2 billion won in operating profit.
Source: Yonhap News Agency