Business

Sun Jul 20 22:22:34 PDT 2008

SEOUL, July 21 (Reuters) – LG Electronics Inc <066570.KS> reported on Monday an 84 percent jump in quarterly earnings, helped by high margins on mobile phones, brisk TV sales and solid results at its LCD joint venture.

LG, the world’s fourth-largest mobile phone maker after Nokia <NOK1V.HE>, Samsung Electronics <005930.KS> and Motorola <MOT.N>, posted April-June net profit of 707 billion won ($696.5 million) versus 385 billion won a year ago.

The figure missed a forecast for 802 billion won by 10 analysts surveyed by Reuters.

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Following are some reactions from fund managers and analysts:

JASON KANG, ANALYST, DAEWOO SECURITIES

"There are several risks in the second-half of the year to 2009, which are the global downturn of the mobile phone market, and the weakening display market due to a supply glut. Whether LG could maintain the high margins that it is seeing now for mobile phones is the big question for the latter-half of the year.

"The success of iPhone will increase competition in the high-priced mobile phone market, which may hurt LG in the long-run, but it is positive in a sense that the market itself is expanding."

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Keiron Henderson)

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