SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — LG Uplus Corp. on Friday reported its third-quarter net profit of 170.8 billion won (US$119.6 million), down 19.1 percent from a year earlier, due to increased interest costs.
Operating income for the July-September period was 285.1 billion won, up 3 percent from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Revenue rose 0.7 percent to 3.5 trillion won.
The earnings fell behind market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 190.8 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The company said the net loss is blamed on increased financial expenses amid a hike in interest rates.
Sales in its mobile business inched up 1.5 percent to 1.55 trillion won, with the number of its mobile subscribers rising 11.3 percent to 19.47 million as of the third quarter.
The company’s smart home business also saw its sales gain 3.9 percent to 590.5 billion won thanks to the increase in IPTV and high-speed internet subscriptions.
LG Uplus has earlier announced its plans to reorganize its current and future key services under four main platform pillars centered on the themes of lifestyle, entertainment, parenting and Web 3.0.
It said it will expand its non-telecom business portfolio to account for up to 40 percent of its total sales by 2027.
(Yonhap)