LG reduces mobile losses for Q3

LG Electronics has succeeded in reducing losses from its mobile business for the third quarter while the home appliance business broke its own quarterly earnings record during the July to September period, the company has announced.

The South Korean electronics maker posted operating profit of 781 billion won ($653 million) and revenues of 15.7 trillion won ($13.15 billion), a rise of 4.4% and 1.8%, respectively.

It is the company's highest operating profits since 2009, and its highest ever revenue for a third quarter.

LG's home appliance business again led the way, with operating profits of 429 billion won and revenues of 5.3 trillion won, a rise of 3.8% and 10%, respectively. Its third quarter sales figures was the highest ever recorded by the home appliances business.

See also: LG needs to decide where OLED should live  

Meanwhile, its mobile business posted an operating loss of 161 billion won ($135 million). Despite still being in the red, the losses were substantially less in comparison to the previous quarter's operating losses of 313 billion won. LG said production efficiencies and cost improvements helped reduce losses.

LG's TV business posted operating profit of 318 billion won, a slight decline from last year's 325 billion won, which was due to increased market competition and a weaker exchange rate, the company said. It added that OLED TVs were showing strong sales with a margin rate of 8.2%.

For the upcoming quarter, the South Korean electronics expects intense competition for its home appliance business due to it being the "offseason", but said it would make efficient marketing efforts to maintain the same profit levels it achieved last year.

LG added that it would continue to control costs for its mobile business as the company's transition to 5G has happened slower than expected in North America, but the company said it expects this to change next year. 

For TVs, the company expects intense competition and slowing demand for TVs, meaning that it would increase its marketing spend for its TV business during the holiday season. Despite this, the company said it remained confident that its OLED TV and ultra-large sized TVs would continue to show growth, vowing for a stable profit structure at its results announcement.

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