South Korea’s LG Electronics on Thursday reported strong earnings for the third quarter, mainly thanks to its premium TV and home appliances, while losses from smartphone division failed to improve despite release of new high-end model.

LG Electronics on Thursday said in a regulatory filing that it posted 516.1 billion won ($458.8 million) in operating profit in the third quarter ended September, up 82.2 percent from a year ago. Sales have risen 15.1 percent to 15.22 trillion won over the same period. The company swung to a net income of 336.1 billion won.

Share of LG Electronics Thursday closed 1.28 percent down at 92,700 won from the previous session.

Its home appliance (H&A) division raked in a profit of 424.9 billion won, up 26 percent a year earlier period, on revenue of 4.98 trillion won.

Home entertainment (HE) unit whose main focus is TV sale reported its highest-ever quarterly operating profit of 458 billion won in the same quarter on sales of 4.64 trillion won. Sales were up 12 percent from a year-ago period. It also reported record-high operating margin of 9.9 percent thanks to strong demand for its premium models such as organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs and ultra high-definition TVs.

Mobile communications (MC) division still struggled, reporting an operating loss of 375.3 billion won on revenue of 2.81 trillion won even as G6 fared well in Korea and the U.S.

Its vehicle components (VC) division, another loss-making business in LG Electronics, reported an operating loss of 29 billion won in the third quarter in spite of strong sales. Sales nevertheless jumped 29 percent to 873.4 billion won from the same period in 2016.

LG Electronics is seeking to reduce its losses in the final quarter with the help of its premium smartphone V30 sales. The company said it would expand the overseas sales of V30 together with mid-priced smartphone models.

By Lee Dong-in and Lee Ha-yeon

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