LG Electronics posted a second consecutive quarter of operating profit meeting market expectations and fueling anticipation for a much-awaited turnaround, the Seoul-based company said Wednesday.
The electronics maker’s quarterly operating profit reached 158.2 billion won ($145.8 million), up 20.9 percent from the previous quarter, while sales stood at 14.4 trillion won ($13.3 billion) to rise 9.3 percent.
The figures showed that compared to the April to June period last year, operating profit rose 25.3 percent.
“Our second quarter results were on par with market forecasts, and we believe overall, considering the market conditions, we fared well,” said Oh Sea-chun, a spokesman for the company.
Wednesday’s data marked the first time that LG Electronics appeared to be on the cusp of a comeback since vice chairman and CEO Koo Bon-joon took over the reins in September last year.
LG Electronics had first swung back into the black in the first quarter of this year with an operating profit of 130.8 billion won after posting two straight quarters of deficit last year.
The company’s mobile communications division continued to show poor performance, but its operating loss was narrowed on the back of rising smartphone sales.
The mobile communications unit logged 3.24 trillion won of sales and an operating deficit of 53.9 billion won, with handset sales reaching 3.2 trillion won. Operating deficit was pared down to 54.7 billion won from the 101.1 recorded in the previous quarter.
LG Electronics attributed the growth to the steady sales of smartphones such as the Optimus One and Optimus 2X.
Consequently, total handset sales rose just 1 percent compared to the first quarter, but smartphone sales increased by more than 50 percent.
Park Jong-seok, head of LG Electronics’ mobile communications division recently said the company would aim to sell up to 24 million smartphones this year.
LG Electronics’ home entertainment division also received a boost from brisk sales of its high-end televisions including its latest 3-D lineup fitted with film-type patterned retarders. In total, the unit’s operating profit rose 10 percent from the first quarter to stand at 90.3 billion won.
