LG Display Q4 profit drops 30% on year, hit by lower TV panel prices (updated)

LG DISPLAY

26/01/2022 07:10

(Adds revenue, LCD panel price data, background)
    By Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang
    SEOUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd
 034220.KS  posted on Wednesday a 30% drop in quarterly
operating profit on the year, hit by a steep decline in TV panel
prices that offset solid shipments of smaller screens used for
computers, laptops and smartphones. 
    The Apple Inc  AAPL.O  supplier posted an operating profit
of 476 billion won ($397.64 million) for the October-December
period, down from 678 billion a year earlier.
    It missed an average analyst forecast of 588 billion won
compiled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate. 
    Revenue rose 18% on year to 8.8 trillion won. 
    During October-December, prices of 55-inch liquid crystal
display (LCD) panels for TV sets fell 37% from the previous
quarter, according to market data from TrendForce's WitsView. 
    However, LG Display managed to avoid a bigger dent to
profits, analysts said, as only 27% of sales came from
television panels during the quarter. 
    Solid shipments of LCD panels for notebooks and monitors,
whose prices declined by less than LCD TV panel prices, as well
as higher-margin OLED panels for smartphones and TVs, should
help LG defend its results this year, analysts said. 
    Shares of LG Display ended down 0.7%, versus the wider
market's  .KS11  0.4% fall.
    
($1=1,197.0500 won)

 (Reporting by Joyce Lee & Heekyong Yang; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez & Simon Cameron-Moore)
 ((joyce.lee@tr.com;))