Seoul, Jan 23 (IANS): LG Electronics, South Korea's leading home appliance maker, said on Thursday its fourth-quarter net loss deepened from a year earlier as a weak won pushed up foreign exchange translation losses.

The company posted a net loss of 713.7 billion won ($496.8 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a net loss of 76.4 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2023, the company said in a regulatory filing.

"Increased translation losses of (dollar-denominated) financial debt and interest costs held by the company's overseas subsidiaries further cut into the bottom line," a company spokesperson said over the phone, reports Yonhap news agency.

The dollar rose to an average of 1,396.84 won in the fourth quarter from 1,320.84 won a year earlier, showed data from the Bank of Korea.

Operating profit plunged 56.7 per cent to 135.4 billion won in the fourth quarter from 312.5 billion won a year ago.

In the October-December period, higher marketing costs to boost home appliance sales amid lacklustre consumer spending and sharply increased logistics costs also weighed on the operating profit, the company said in a press release.

Sales inched up 0.1 per cent to 22.76 trillion won from 22.73 trillion won over the cited period.

To ride out the rapidly changing business environment, LG Electronics will continue to reorganise its home appliance-centred business portfolios and secure new growth drivers, the release said.

While strengthening the competitiveness of its mainstay home appliance business, the company will introduce high-end products equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as well as advanced vehicle solutions for upcoming software-defined vehicles, it said.

For the whole of 2024, net income nearly halved to 591.4 billion won from 1.15 trillion won the previous year.

Operating profit declined 6.4 per cent on-year to 3.41 trillion won but sales were up 6.6 per cent at 87.72 trillion won.