LG sees record fourth quarter earnings on solid home appliance sales

LG Electronics on Friday forecast robust fourth-quarter earnings as sales from its mainstay home appliances apparently remained solid despite the weakness of the US dollar.

In its earnings guidance, the South Korean tech giant estimated its operating profit at 647 billion won ($592 million) for the October-December period in 2020, a six fold increase from a year ago.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, LG's fourth-quarter sales estimate was up 11 per cent from the previous quarter, when it racked up 16.9 trillion won. Operating profit, however, was down 32.5 percent compared to the third quarter.

For the whole of 2020, LG expected its operating profit to reach 3.19 trillion won, up 31 percent from a year earlier, with its sales to climb 1.5 percent on-year to 63.26 trillion won, reports Yonhap news agency.

LG did not break down performances of its respective business divisions, saying it will announce the detailed earnings later this month.

LG's home appliance and air solution (H&A) business unit is again expected to have anchored the company's performance.

LG's struggling mobile and vehicle component solutions (VS) business divisions were projected to remain in the red in the fourth quarter.

Analysts predicted that LG will have record earnings in 2021 as they expect the company's home appliance and TV businesses to remain strong, with its mobile unit reducing operating losses. Its vehicle component solutions business was expected to swing to the black in 2021.

--IANS

na/