South Korean panel giant LG Display Co. said Monday it swung to profit in the first quarter from a year earlier, driven by solid growth of panels for smart devices.

Net profit reached 3.48 billion won ($3.1 million) in the January-March period, compared with a loss of 129 billion won a year earlier, LG Display said in a regulatory filing.

Revenue jumped 10 percent on-year to 6.8 trillion won in the first quarter, while the company posted an operating profit of 151 billion won, a sharp turnaround from an operating loss of 211 billion won a year ago.

The stronger bottom line was attributed to an improved mix of specialty products.

“With differentiated specialty products, we were able to achieve operating profit for four consecutive quarters overcoming seasonal factors,” said LG Display chief executive Han Sang-beom.

Shares of LG Display closed at 30,450 won on the Seoul bourse, up 2.18 percent from Friday’s close. The first-quarter earnings were released after the stock market closed.

But from the previous quarter, its first-quarter sales dropped 22 percent and operating income nosedived 74 percent, it said.

TFT-LCD panels for TVs, monitors, tablets and mobile applications accounted for 43 percent, 21 percent, 14 percent and 13 percent, respectively, of its total revenue, it said. But it did not provide comparable figures for last year. (Yonhap News)