LG's 2017 financial results are encouraging, but mobile division still recording losses
LG Electronics has revealed its financial results for 2017. The Korean manufacturer has recorded full-year revenues of $55.4 billion, the highest in the company's history and an increase of 10.9% compared to 2016. Operating profits stood at $2.23 billion. This makes 2017 LG's second most profitable year, with 2009 still sitting at the top spot.
These results are undoubtedly great news for LG as a whole, but the success is mainly driven by strong sales of premium OLED TVs and home appliances. The company's smartphone manufacturing branch is still in the red, having recorded losses of $192.3 million for the last quarter of 2017. This result is worse than the $187 million loss predicted by analysts. In its press statement, LG cites the "challenging marketplace and strong competition from Chinese brands" as two main reasons for its lack of success in this area.
Hwang Jeong-hwan was recently appointed as CEO of LG mobile in a bid to turn the division's fortunes around. The new executive is reportedly trying different strategies such as stopping the practice of doing smartphone announcements in unison with rival companies and only unveiling new models "when it is needed". The development of the LG G7 was also supposedly restarted, meaning that we're probably not going to see it announced at MWC 2018. Instead, we might see an improved version of the LG V30 breaking cover in February. It will be interesting to see whether these changes will pay off.
source: LG
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