Seoul: LG Uplus Corp., a prominent mobile carrier in South Korea, announced a substantial increase in its second-quarter net profit, reporting a rise of over 30 percent compared to the previous year. This growth is attributed to solid advancements in mobile sales and an expanding subscriber base.
According to Yonhap News Agency, LG Uplus reported a net profit of 217.1 billion won (approximately US$156.9 million) for the April-June period, marking a 31.9 percent increase from the 164.6 billion won recorded during the same period last year. This figure surpassed market expectations, as analysts had projected an average net profit estimate of 183.9 billion won, based on data from a Yonhap Infomax survey.
The company's operating profit saw a 19.9 percent year-on-year rise, reaching 304.5 billion won for the quarter. Meanwhile, sales experienced a 10 percent increase, amounting to 3.84 trillion won. The impressive performance was largely driven by significant growth in mobile subscriptions, coupled with company-wide initiatives to boost productivity through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI).
In the mainstay mobile business, sales climbed 3.8 percent to 1.65 trillion won in the three-month period ending in June, with wireless service subscriptions expanding by 9.9 percent year-on-year to 29.92 million. Additionally, the smart home business unit, encompassing internet protocol televisions (IPTV) and internet services, reported a 2.7 percent increase in sales, totaling 636.6 billion won.
However, the revenue from the infrastructure unit, responsible for internet data centers and other business-to-business (B2B) operations, experienced a slight decline of 0.3 percent, amounting to 427.7 billion won. This decrease followed the divestment of its electric vehicle (EV) charging business to its subsidiary, LG Uplus VoltUp.