South Korea's LG Electronics reported a 45% drop in its second-quarter net profit owing to sluggish smartphone sales and unfavorable currency rates. In the second quarter of the year, the net profit totaled 226.4 billion won ($19.57 million), while the operating profit dropped even more by 60% or 244 billion won ($210.9 million). On the whole, the company lost 7.6% on a yearly basis that is 13.9 trillion won. Most analysts had expected better figures. The company explains such a decline by failures on the market of mobile devices.
The operation profit in the company’s mobile department tumbled by 100% to 200 million won. The company even had to cut the smartphone shipments by 3% to 14.1 million compared to the previous year. However, there are more successful departments. LG Display keeps on increasing its profit exceeding forecasts. The second-quarter sales of the LTE devices for the first time surpassed 8 million units. Financial stability of the LG Display producers is provided by strong demand for high-quality displays for both mobile devices and TVs. In the second quarter, the net profit amounted to 362.6 billion won ($311.8 million) beating the previous year’s reading by 42%. That is why departments of LG Electronics and LG Display pay special attention to the production of mobile processors and TV displays. Apple is the main purchaser of the product. Moreover, LG Display increased its production of both OLED panels and new displays.
