Quarterly results and comparison with the second quarter
LG Electronics closed the July-September quarter with an operating profit of 781.9 billion won (about $583.9 million), up 13.5% from 688.9 billion a year earlier, according to final data released by the company and reported by The Korea Herald. Revenue rose 8.9% to 23.82 trillion won. The improvement is attributed by the source to rising TV profits and stable sales in automotive electronics.
The comparison with the previous quarter, however, shows a contraction: operating profit fell 50.5% from 1.58 trillion won in the second quarter, a dynamic the source partly links to the absence of a one-off tariff refund that had supported the previous results. In the first nine months, operating profit reached 4.03 trillion won, up 55.9%, already above the 2.48 trillion for the whole of 2025.
The divisions: automotive and TV stand out, appliances slow
All four main divisions remained profitable, with diverging trends. The Vehicle Solution division posted an operating profit of 190.3 billion won on revenue of 2.83 trillion, both records for a third quarter, with an operating margin of 6.7%, supported by sales of automotive infotainment and deliveries expected under existing contracts. The television and media division reported 146.7 billion in operating profit on 5.02 trillion in revenue, thanks to sales of premium OLED TVs and expansion in emerging markets.
Appliances remain the largest division, with 7.04 trillion in revenue and 259.2 billion in operating profit, but the margin narrowed to 3.7% from almost 10% in the previous quarter, when the business had benefited from the tariff refund.
Cooling for AI data centers: orders above 3 trillion won
The most significant development concerns AI data center cooling. LG said cumulative orders exceeded 3 trillion won at the end of September, compared with about 600 billion in the first half: a fivefold increase in the first nine months of the year. The company recently secured a long-term agreement to supply chillers to North American AI data center projects with a total capacity of more than 5 gigawatts, and is expanding production facilities to meet demand.
The Eco Solution division, which includes the cooling business, however saw operating profit fall to 87.2 billion won from 236 billion in the previous quarter, with margin down from 8.6% to 4%, partly due to higher spending aimed at future growth. It therefore remains to be seen how the expansion in orders will translate into profitability in the coming quarters.
