LG expects over $1 billion in operating profits generated on approximately $14.2 billion of revenue over the premier quarter of 2018, the Seoul-based tech giant said Friday. The company’s first-quarter bottom line hasn’t been higher since 2009, with the guidance representing a 20.2-percent annual increase in profitability. Both figures are median values of profit and turnover ranges that the firm cannot disclose officially due to existing regulations in South Korea. LG has yet to schedule the release of its consolidated financial report for Q1 2018 but has already confirmed it will publish its latest finances in late April, much like it did in previous years.
As was the case with all of LG’s recent financial estimates, the new one doesn’t attempt to delve into any aspect of the company‘s business and is only meant to serve as an approximate guideline for investors. The firm’s mobile business is widely believed to still be bleeding money, having lost over $200 million in the final three-month period of 2017 alone. The lack of a new flagship release and marketing expenses associated with such product launches may help the company narrow its Q1 smartphone losses to a degree, with the successor to the G6 now being expected to debut next month as the LG G7 ThinQ, according to recent reports. LG’s overall mobile strategy still remains unclear, with the original equipment manufacturer recently exiting China due to heavy losses and spacing out the releases of its high-end products which traditionally come with high profit margins. The company appears to be equally committed to the mid-range and entry-level segments as in previous years, as evidenced by its product showcases and conferences held at CES and MWC several months back.
LG as a whole is still on the rise, with the firm’s appliances business and several other units posting promising results in recent quarters and its Q4 2017 financials also showing the best results in the current decade. While its mobile division is presently a burden, LG has no intentions of exiting the global smartphone market altogether, according to a number of statements given by its officials in previous months.