Samsung surprised the analysts with its smashing quarterly results yesterday and now its Korean counterpart LG has also done pretty much the same. It has today reported its fourth quarter earnings and they’re definitely not what one would’ve expected. The company has booked a massive loss of 258.80 billion won (approx $223.98 million) in the fourth quarter. This has been attributed to the lacking performance of their mobile and auto components divisions.
In the fourth quarter, LG might have faltered on the money-making front but revenue has still seen an uptick. The revenues for this 3 month period ended December 2016 amounted to 14.78 trillion won (approx $12.79 billion). It was up 11.7 percent when compared to the previous quarter and 1.5 percent for the same quarter last year. The humongous loss figure in a 180-degree reversal from the company’s profit figures reported in the same quarter for 2015.
Further, looking at numbers for the full-year, the Korean pulled itself together with a strong performance by “home appliances, air solutions and home entertainment” businesses. LG posted an operating profit of 1.34 trillion won (approx $1.16 billion), that’s 12.2 percent more than the previous year. The revenue for the full year, however, stands at 55.37 trillion won (approx $47.92 billion) coupled with the net income of 126.3 billion won (approx $109.31 million).
Talking about the breakdown of figures for each segment of their business, LG Mobile Communications — its smartphone arm — posted that the revenues touched 2.90 trillion won (approx $2.51 billion) in the fourth quarter. This is a 15.4 percent increase from the previous quarter but a 23 percent decrease as per the previous year. The company added that though the V20 performed exceptionally well, the figures suffer at the hands of the modular G5. The same was the case in the second and third quarter as well but LG believes G6 would bring better days.
Talking about the same, the official statement adds,
Profitability was hampered by weak sales of the G5 smartphone and higher marketing investments. Introductions of the next G Series phone and mass-tier devices in the second quarter following Mobile World Congress are expected to help greatly improve the LG Mobile Communications Company’s market position in 2017.
In the fourth quarter revenue figures, the vehicle components division accounted for a solid 865.7 billion won (approx $749.2 million), the home entertainment company added 4.79 trillion won (approx $4.15 billion) and the home appliance & air solutions business managed to bring in 4.04 trillion won (approx $3.50 billion). This is all done and dusted and LG is now looking to regain its position in the smartphone market with the release of its flagship device — the G6. It will make a debut at MWC in Barcelona on February 26.
The LG G6 is planning to shed the modular design adopted with the G5 and pack a non-removable battery. It’ll, however, imbibe few design characteristics from the said device into the G6. We’ve already got a glimpse of the G6, thanks to presentation renders of the smartphone. It confirms to us that the phone will pack a 5.7-inch QHD+ display with rounded corners and an unusual aspect ratio of 18:9. The phone will be made entirely out of metal and glass and include a 3.5 mm audio jack. It is also expected to adopt thermal pipe cooling tech to completely avoid mishaps like the Note 7 one.
