SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean battery firm LG Energy Solution (LGES) on Friday posted a 43% rise in quarterly profit, helped by increased output from its U.S. joint venture factory with General Motors.
The company, which supplies Tesla, GM, Volkswagen and other automakers, reported an operating profit of 338 billion won ($252.40 million) for the October-December period, versus 237 billion won a year earlier.
The profit is in line with the company’s estimate of 338 billion won provided earlier this month and above a 298 billion won forecast compiled by the LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analysts who are more consistently accurate.
However, its fourth-quarter profit dropped more than 50% from the previous quarter due to weak electric vehicle (EV) demand in Europe.
Revenue for the quarter fell 6.3% year-on-year to 8 trillion won.
The South Korean battery maker’s forecast comes after Tesla on Wednesday warned of a sharp slowdown in its sales growth this year.
Shares of LGES were trading up 0.4%, versus the benchmark KOSPI’s 0.1 fall.
($1 = 1,339.1500 won)
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Comments