Seoul, South Korea
—
reported
Wednesday a third-quarter net loss, due in large part to heavy equity declines
in its flat-panel business operations.
However, the
company said it expects to see modest sales growth in the next few months,
fueled by sales of higher margined smartphones and 3DTVs. According to the third-quarter
financial report, significant improvement was made in the company’s handset
operations, which helped reduce LG’s operating loss over the past year.
The company
reported a net loss of $366 million for the three months, ended Sept. 30, after
booking a 257.9 billion won equity loss in the quarter from the LG Display
unit.
LG also showed a
23.5 billion won loss from its LG Innotek components operation.
LG said it is
counting on the rollout of new high-margin products, such as smartphones and 3DTVs
to produce modest sales growth in coming months.
LG’s operating
loss improved to 31.9 billion won in the third quarter, from a loss of 185.2
billion won, the company said.
Overall sales declined
4 percent to 12.9 trillion won during the quarter, from 13.43 trillion won.
LG reported
selling 21.1 million handsets, down from 24.8 million units in the second
quarter. The operating loss margin grew to 5.2 percent, from 1.7 percent in the
second quarter.
The TV business
unit showed a 1.9 percent operating profit margin, up from 1.7 percent in the
second quarter.
