LG Display Co, the world’s second-largest maker of LCDs, reported a 62 percent drop in third-quarter profit as slowing demand for televisions and computer monitors drove down panel prices.
Net income dropped to 224.2 billion won (US$198 million) from 595.3 billion won a year earlier, Seoul-based LG Display said yesterday.
Profit surpassed the 145 billion won average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The results come two weeks after larger rival Samsung Electronics Co reported profit that missed analysts’ estimates and fueled concern global spending on electronics is slowing.
LG, which makes displays for Apple Inc’s iPad, may post a loss in the fourth quarter as weak demand and oversupply of panels reduce prices further, analysts said.
“Panel prices are likely to continue falling until the end of the fourth quarter,” Lee Seung-jin, a Seoul-based analyst at Tong Yang Securities Inc, said before the announcement. “It’s not that the market didn’t grow well, but demand expectations were too high and it led to a supply glut.”
LG Display’s sales increased 15 percent to 6.7 trillion won, higher than the 6.21 trillion won median of eight analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, fell 73 percent to 182.1 billion won, compared with the 150.8 billion won average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The average price of the company’s panels probably fell 5.8 percent last quarter and may decline 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter, according to an estimate by Taurus Investment & Securities Co.
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