LG Electronics says Q1 operating profit likely up 66 percent

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean tech firm LG Electronics Inc said on Monday its first-quarter operating profit likely rose 66 percent from a year earlier, easily beating expectations and pointing to an earnings boost from healthy appliance sales and falling television panel prices.

LG Electronics said in a regulatory filing it expects a January-March profit of 505 billion won ($441 million), compared with 305 billion won a year earlier. That would be well above an average forecast for 408 billion won from a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S survey of 25 analysts.

But the firm estimated January-March revenue would be 13.4 trillion won, down 4.5 percent from a year earlier.

LG Electronics gave no other details on the quarter's performance, set to be disclosed in full when it formally reports earnings in late April.

($1 = 1,145.5700 won)

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)