LG has large net loss for fourth quarter and fiscal year

There are so many ways to chop up earnings, that we can show you that Korean manufacturer LG had a great fourth quarter. But if we concentrate on net profits, things start to turn red. Let's take a look at the entire company and then we will concentrate on the handset division because after all, we are phoneArena, not refrigeratorArena.

For Q4, LG had a net loss of  111 billion KRW ($98.5 million USD). For the entire year, the bottom line was a net loss of 433 billion KRW ($384 million USD). Throw out things like losses on investments, taxes and other non-operating costs, and LG actually had a 10 billion KRW ($8 million USD) operating profit for Q4 and a 280 billion KRW ($253 million USD) operating profit for the year. Revenue for the quarter was 13.81 trillion KRW ($12.05 billion USD). For the year, LG brought in 54.26 trillion KRW ($48.97 billion USD).

LG broke down operating profits by product. For the fourth quarter, handsets scored a 10 billion KRW ($8 billion USD) operating profit thanks to a sales mix that was skewed heavier toward the high profit margin models like the LG Optimus LTE. Revenue for the three months was 2.7 trillion KRW ($2.4 billion USD). For 2011, handsets lost 286 billion KRW ($254 million USD) on revenue of 11.4 trillion KRW ($10.1 billion USD).

For the handset market, LG sees carriers expanding LTE use in 2012 to gain market share and as a result, handset manufacturers will produce more LTE enabled models. LG plans on strengthening its position in the handset market by expanding in strategic locations. The company will also focus on manufacturing smartphones, especially those with LTE connectivity.

source: LG