LG Electronics has officially announced the preliminary earnings results for the first quarter of 2023. It also surpassed Samsung Electronics operating profit in 14 years.
Accoridng to the official LG press news, the company revenue is KRW 20.4 trillion, the second highest quarterly revenue, with an operating profit of KRW 1.5 trillion, the third highest quarterly operating profit, in the first quarter of 2023.
LG is also looking to improve the sales of home appliances in the first quarter and achieve results in all business areas, including TVs, electronic devices, and corporate targets (B2B).
The market is paying attention to the fact that LG Electronics’ operating profit has surpassed Samsung Electronics in 14 years. LG Electronics operating profit is more than twice that of Samsung Electronics. The operating profit for the first quarter, tentatively tallied by Samsung Electronics this morning, was 600 billion won, down 95.75 percent from the same period last year. During the same period, sales decreased by 19% to KRW 63 trillion.
While Samsung Electronics’ earnings shrank due to the slump in the semiconductor industry, which is considered the worst ever, LG Electronics improved profitability through efforts such as easing logistics and raw material price burdens, business restructuring, and preemptive inventory adjustments. LG Electronics said, “Company-wide efforts to fundamentally improve the business structure and operation method, such as company-wide war room tasks, have resulted in business results.”
In addition, the fact that the proportion of the B2B business, which is relatively less affected by the economy, has increased, has also led to an improvement in performance. In particular, the electric vehicle business, which turned profitable last year, is continuing its recent sales growth based on a stable order backlog. LG Magma (Powertrain), a joint venture, is also aiming for a turnaround this year by increasing customer shipments.
In the stock market, detailed results were not released as this performance was tentative, but it was evaluated that all major areas such as home appliances (H&A division), TV (HE division), and electric vehicles (VS division) would have shown results. There was also a forecast that LG Electronics would record the most noteworthy 1Q earnings among electronics companies thanks to improved profitability of the H&A and HE divisions.