Seoul, Jan 29 (IANS): LG Electronics on Friday said it posted record earnings in the fourth quarter of 2020 on robust home appliance sales but its mobile business remained in red amid reports of the company existing the smartphone market.

LG's mobile business unit logged 248.5 billion in operating loss in the fourth quarter, improving from a loss of 332.2 billion won a year earlier. The unit's sales increased 4.9 per cent on-year to 1.38 trillion won.

For the whole 2020, its operating loss totaled 841.2 billion won, which reflected increased marketing costs to support its flagship devices.

The mobile business of LG Electronics has been in the red since the second quarter of 2015. Its accumulated operating loss reached nearly $4.5 billion last year and now, the South Korean company has said it will closely review the direction of its business.

Overall, the South Korean tech giant logged a net profit of 262.3 billion won (US$233 million) in the October-December period, swinging from a net loss of 849.8 billion won a year ago.

For the whole of 2020, LG Electronics posted a tenfold increase in its net profit to 2 trillion won. Operating profit surged 31.1 percent on-year to 3.2 trillion won, while sales inched up 1.5 percent on-year to 63.2 trillion won.

LG's record-setting performance was anchored by its home appliance & air solution (H&A) unit, reports Yonhap news agency.

The H&A unit logged sales of 5.54 trillion won, up 20 percent from a year ago, while operating profit more than doubled to 299.6 billion won in the October-December period, both largest for a fourth quarter.

LG said double-digit sales growth in South Korea, North America and Europe, as well as its improved costs management, pushed up the bottom line of its main business.

Its H&A unit also posted record yearly performance with sales of 22.27 trillion won and operating profit of 2.35 trillion won in 2020. It also marked a two-digit operating margin for the first time at 10.6 percent.

LG's home entertainment unit, which manages the TV business, saw fourth-quarter sales of 4.28 trillion won, up 7.9 percent from a year ago. Operating profit jumped 103.5 percent on-year to 204.5 billion won.

Both mobile communications (MC) and vehicle component solutions (VS) units stayed in the red but managed to trim their operating losses from a year ago.