LG Electronics Inc, the world’s third-largest TV maker, said its display business turned profitable for the first time in six quarters, helped by TV sales.
Plasma TV, which led to losses at the display unit during the first quarter of last year, are expected to make money this year, Kim Jik-soo, a spokesman for Seoul-based LG Electronics, said by telephone yesterday, confirming remarks by Simon Kang, head of the division, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported.
The display division posted an operating profit of 19 billion won (US$19 million) during the first quarter, helped by flat-panel TV sales and a weaker won, based on estimates this month by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
LG will probably announce record global sales and operating income when it reports earnings tomorrow, JPMorgan said.
Shares of LG fell 2.6 percent to close at 133,000 won in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe’s largest consumer electronics maker, reported a bigger decline in first-quarter profit than analysts estimated as flat-panel TV sales and prices fell.
Philips’ net income dropped 75 percent to 219 million euros (US$344 million) from a year earlier, when Amsterdam-based Philips had a gain from selling Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) shares. Sales rose 0.5 percent to 5.97 billion euros. Analysts had predicted profits of 276 million euros, the median of 14 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
Philips fell to the lowest since July 2006 in Amsterdam trading after earnings from consumer products sank 45 percent to the lowest in at least five quarters. CEO Gerard Kleisterlee said the squeeze on profit margins in televisions may continue. Philips, which has been expanding in areas with more stable earnings such as medical gear and lamps, said last week it would exit its unprofitable North American TV business.
Philips, whose net profit missed analysts’ estimates twice in the past three quarters, fell 3.3 percent to 23.11 euros in Amsterdam. The stock has lost 22 percent this year, compared with a 13 percent slide in the Amsterdam Exchanges Index.
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