LG Electronics books first quarterly loss in six years on worst mobile result

Reuters: South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc on Wednesday reported its first quarterly operating loss in six years in October-December due to its worst mobile performance.

Its fourth-quarter loss reached 35 billion won ($30.06 million), in line with its guidance earlier this month, said LG Electronics, the world’s second-largest television maker behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. That was LG’s first loss since the third quarter of 2011 and its biggest since the fourth quarter in 2010.

The firm expects a significant improvement in operating income in the January-March quarter compared with the previous quarter, but did not elaborate.

Quarterly revenue was also seen rising in the first quarter by a “high single-digit”%age rate compared with a year earlier, it said in a filing.

Revenue for the October-December period rose 1.5% from a year earlier to 14.8 trillion won.

The mobile business reported its seventh straight money-losing quarter with 467 billion won in operating loss, its largest ever, according to company data.

Cost increases in the mobile business cut into profit from sales of its new V20 smartphones, which launched in South Korea in late September, analysts said ahead of Wednesday’s filing.

LG’s mobile business was expected to see smaller losses after the firm releases the next version of its G Series smartphones in 2017, said Hi Investment & Securities analyst Song Eun-jeong in a research note on Monday.