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LG Display profit beats estimates as sales surge

LG Display Co, the second-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), reported its second-highest quarterly profit, beating analysts’ estimates, as demand for screens used in computers and televisions surged.
First-quarter net income was 717 billion won (US$734 million), compared with a 168.6 billion won loss a year earlier, the company formerly known as LG.Philips LCD Co said yesterday in a statement. Sales, including overseas affiliates, rose 48 percent to 4.04 trillion won.
Earnings may keep rising. Analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co and Macquarie Group Ltd predict the South Korean company’s profit will more than double to a record this year as the shortage of the screens persists. Competitors including Samsung Electronics Co have also benefited as supply of LCDs for TVs failed to meet demand from consumers replacing bulkier glass-tube sets.
The company was expected to report net income of 679.6 billion won and revenue of 4.15 trillion won, the median of 15 analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey showed.
LG Display is the first major LCD maker to report earnings for the latest quarter. South Korea-based Samsung and Sharp Corp, Japan’s largest LCD maker, are scheduled to report earnings on April 25.
Industry sales of LCD TVs will probably rise 37 percent to 107 million sets this year, James Kim, an analyst at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in Seoul said last month. That’s higher than his earlier projection for 29 percent growth.
Shipments of plasma TVs will increase 33 percent and glass-tube TVs will fall 22 percent, Kim said.
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