LG Electronics' Q3 profit doubles on record smartphone sales

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics said Wednesday that its third-quarter operating profit more than doubled from a year earlier due to record smartphone sales.

Operating profit was 461.3 billion won (440 million U.S. dollars) in the third quarter, up 111.8 percent from a year ago, the company said in a statement. From three months ago, the profit declined 23.9 percent.

Revenue increased 7.4 percent from a year earlier to 14.92 trillion won in the quarter, and net income surged 86.7 percent to 202.6 billion won.

The solid earnings resulted from strong performance in its mobile business, which saw record smartphone sales of 16.8 million units during the quarter, the company said.

The third-quarter figure was up 39 percent from a year earlier, topping the prior high of 14.5 million smartphone sales tallied in the second quarter.

According to information provider Strategy Analytics, LG Electronics ranked third in terms of smarphone sales globally in the first half of 2014 and in the whole year of 2013.

The company's mobile phone sales, including feature phone, reached 21.8 million units in the third quarter, up 19 percent from a year earlier. It was the first time since the third quarter of 2011 that LG's phone sales breached 20 million.

The mobile communications division, which makes mobile phones, posted an operating profit of 167.4 billion won in the third quarter on revenue of 4.25 trillion won. The revenue jumped 39 percent from a year earlier, marking the largest since the company launched a smartphone business in 2010. The profit also logged the biggest in five years.

LG Electronics was one of the dominant players in the global mobile phone market, but it began suffering losses from 2009 due to failure to tackle the smartphone market boom. It recorded operating losses in 2010 and 2011.

The company began to gain momentum in the smartphone business from the second quarter of this year due to the popularity of its G3 model in the North American market.

The LG performance was in a stark contrast to Samsung Electronics, whose third-quarter operating profit plunged 60 percent.

The home entertainment unit, which makes TVs, recorded an operating profit of 130.5 billion won on 4.71 trillion won in revenue during the third quarter. The revenue fell 3 percent from a year earlier due to weak demand for monitors and PDP TVs, but operating profit rose 5 percent on reduced costs and demand for premium products.

The home appliance business, which manufactures refrigerators and washing machines, saw its revenue decline 2 percent on the back of fierce competition in the North American region. The division's operating profit reduced as well due to the local currency's appreciation to the U.S. dollar.

The air conditioning & energy solution division registered an operating loss of 2.5 billion won in the third quarter due to weak seasonality for air conditioners.