LG Display returns to operating profit of 250.6 billion won as revenue falls year on year
Key Facts
LG Display returned to an operating profit in the third quarter of 2026, posting 250.6 billion won, according to the company's earnings statement, as sales rose from the previous quarter on peak-season OLED shipments. The return to profitability followed an operating loss of 107.7 billion won in the second quarter of the same year, marking a quarterly improvement in operating performance. However, operating profit remained below the third quarter of 2025, when the company reported 431 billion won. Revenue for the period reached 6,277 billion won, up 12% from the previous quarter, as shipments of large and mobile OLED panels supported sales. The company attributed the quarterly growth to peak-season shipments of those products, which fed through to revenue for the quarter. Revenue fell 10% from the same period a year earlier, however, as shipments of medium-sized liquid crystal displays were scaled back. LG Display said the reduction in shipments in this category was part of its focus on profitability, alongside quarterly growth in OLED sales.
On the bottom line, the company reported net profit of 755.6 billion won in the third quarter, benefiting in part from an improvement in its financial result related to currency fluctuations. That compared with a net loss of 419 billion won in the second quarter of 2026, bringing the net result back into profit from the previous quarter as well. In the third quarter of 2025, the company had reported net profit of 1.3 billion won, below the current period's result. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation totalled about 1,214 billion won, according to figures in the earnings statement. The margin on that measure was about 19.3% in the third quarter, alongside the return to operating and net profit. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose from 872 billion won in the second quarter. They nevertheless remained below the 1,424 billion won recorded in the corresponding period a year earlier, mirroring the annual comparison for operating profit.
The improvement in third-quarter operating performance came despite pressures LG Display identified as a lower won-dollar exchange rate and higher semiconductor costs. The company described the two factors as "a decline in the won-dollar exchange rate and rising semiconductor costs" in its discussion of factors affecting operations. In the background to the quarterly comparison, the second quarter included one-off expenses related to workforce efficiency measures, according to that quarter's earnings statement. The chief financial officer said at the time that "our underlying business profitability remained positive in the second quarter excluding one-off factors," explaining the impact of those items on the previous period's result. The reported return to operating profit thus followed a period in which the company incurred one-off costs, while its third-quarter operations faced currency and component pressures.
As part of its manufacturing efforts, LG Display says its technology for improving mother glass utilisation increases utilisation efficiency by up to 64% when producing laptop displays. The company compares that increase with manufacturing methods that require substrates to be divided, and links the technology to higher productivity and lower manufacturing costs. On the product front, it announced the start of mass production of a 24.5-inch gaming panel using organic light-emitting diode technology with a refresh rate of 720 hertz. It said the panel's first application was in Asus's new gaming monitor, called the "ROG Swift OLED PG259QWS Ace." The product announcement links the start of large-scale panel production to its use in a gaming monitor, alongside technological development aimed at laptop display manufacturing. LG Display's investor relations calendar scheduled the third-quarter earnings conference for 22 October 2026 at 14:00 Korea time. The conference was scheduled for the day of the earnings announcement, which showed a return to quarterly profitability, with revenue and operating profit remaining below levels in the corresponding period a year earlier.