This file photo taken on Feb. 6, 2023, shows the logo of LG Uplus on the wall of the company’s headquarters in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — LG Uplus Corp., South Korea’s No. 3 mobile carrier, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit declined 9 percent from a year earlier due to compensation for network failures earlier this year.
Its net income reached a net profit of 155.1 billion won (US$117.7 million) for the January-March period on a consolidated basis, down slightly from 170.4 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit for the first three months of the year fell 0.4 percent on-year to 260.2 billion won, but quarterly sales increased 3.9 percent to 3.54 trillion won.
The earnings fell behind market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 164 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
LG Uplus said the on-year decline in net profit is blamed on the compensation for victims of a personal data leak and several partial service outages in January and February.
Sales from its mobile business inched up 2.7 percent on-year to 1.56 trillion won in the first quarter.
The number of its mobile subscribers had gained 11.3 percent on-year to 20.55 million as of end-March, with its 5G network users accounting for 54.8 percent of the total.
The company’s smart home business also saw its sales rise 2.2 percent to 594.3 billion won for the three-month period ending March from a year ago thanks to an increase in IPTV and high-speed internet subscriptions.
Shares in LG Uplus fell 0.53 percent to close at 11,260 won, underperforming the broader Korea Composite Stock Price Index’s 0.22 percent loss.
(Yonhap)
