LG’s annual financial report reveals $475 million profit

LG Electronics has posted its of 2014 financial results and they look a lot better than they have for a while. The South Korean giant posted a US$475-million profit after shipping a total of 59.1-million smartphones, a 24% increase on its previous year.

Its best quarter in 2014 was the third quarter in which LG shipped a record 16.8-million smartphones. In the final quarter however, LG had a drop and only shipped 15.5-million.

LG’s net profit of US$474.81 million is a 125% improvement on last year’s results. A huge contributor to LG’s good performance is its mobile business which helped pull in year-long revenue of US$55.91 billion, a one percent gain on 2013. LG actually posted a net loss of US$189.41 million in Q4 2014 however, due to the costs of closing its plasma TV unit.

Read more: LG G3 review: third time’s the charm

LG’s mobile business alone reported annual sales of US$14.26 billion, up 16% year-on-year, for 2014. And its revenue in Q4 2014 rose five percent year-on-year to reach US$3.48-billion. Though the company did not give a breakdown earnings by handset, the LG G3, its 2014 flagship device, was well received by the consumers and received raving reviews.

If anything is to be inferred from the gadgets displayed at CES 2015 earlier this year, LG has prepared a pretty impressive offering for 2014. Whether it will do as well is another issue all together. Apart from showing its gadgets at CES 2015, LG will again showcase them at Mobile World Congress, the phone industry’s largest trade show, which is coming up soon.

Despite the positive financial results LG warned that 2015 will be “a challenging year” with increased competition in the smartphone industry.

“LG will concentrate on improving its brand power, operating more efficiently, and focusing on selective key markets,” the company said.