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South Korea’s LG Display Co Ltd said profit more than
halved in the fourth quarter as soft demand for TVs continued to compress
screen prices, outweighing a sales rebound in displays for Apple Inc’s iPhones.
LG Display, like competitor Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s
Samsung Display, has been pouring funds into next-generation technology to
tempt consumers to upgrade from liquid-crystal display television sets.
LCD TVs quickly supplanted their boxy ancestors in
advanced economies so sales have plateaued. Sales in emerging economies such as
China are mainly of cheap models.
As a result, the TV set industry is worth $96 billion
from $120 billion in 2010, according to analysts.
That has made it difficult for LG Display and other panel
makers to raise prices, crimping earnings as TV screens are a major source of
revenue due to their large sizes.
Operating profit at LG Display, the world’s biggest LCD
maker, fell 56 percent on year in October-December to 257 billion won ($241
million).
That compared with a 238 billion won mean estimate of 31
analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of LG Display, worth $11.15 billion, closed down 0.4
percent ahead of the earnings release, compared with the benchmark index which
was 1.2 percent lower.
"We expect profit in the first quarter of 2014 to
decline quarter-on-quarter due to traditional seasonal decline in panel
shipments and price," LG Display Chief Financial Officer Don Kim said in a
statement.
The company said it expects LCD shipments to fall around
10 percent to 15 percent in the first quarter, and that price declines may ease.
LG Display earned 37 percent of revenue from TV screens,
down from 43 percent a year earlier.
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