Following Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics could not avoid 'earning shock' in the fourth quarter of last year.
Operating profit plunged 91.2% to the point where record-high sales were overshadowed. This is the result of poor performance in all of the major businesses that were driving the performance.
LG Electronics announced that consolidated sales in the fourth quarter of last year were tentatively tallied at 21.8597 trillion won and operating profit at 65.5 billion won. Sales rose 5.2% year-on-year to a quarterly high. However, operating profit plunged 91.2% during the same period. As a result, the operating profit ratio fell to 0.3%, failing to keep a single digit.
This is far below the securities firm consensus (average forecast). According to financial information provider FnGuide, the securities industry expects LG Electronics' fourth-quarter sales to be 22.72 trillion won and operating profit to be 420.7 billion won. However, the actual operating profit was only one-seventh of the consensus.
The annual performance was also somewhat sluggish. LG Electronics' annual sales last year, including provisional sales in the fourth quarter, were 83.4695 trillion won and operating profit was 3.5472 trillion won.
Sales rose 12.9% year-on-year to an all-time high. In particular, this is the first time that annual sales have exceeded 80 trillion won. However, operating profit decreased by 12.6%, and operating profit ratio also fell from 5.5% to 4.2%.
AlphaBIZ 김지선(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
