Seoul, Apr 29 (IANS): LG Electronics on Thursday reported its best-ever quarterly earnings in the first quarter on the back of robust home appliance sales.

The South Korean tech giant said it logged a net profit of 1.17 trillion won ($1.05 billion) in the January-March period on a consolidated basis, up from 1.08 trillion won a year ago.

Its operating profit spiked 39.1 percent to 1.51 trillion won in the first three months of 2021, while sales jumped 27.7 percent on-year to 18.8 trillion won over the cited period.

Both sales and operating profit were record highs in the company's history, beating revenue of 18.78 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2020 and operating income of 1.24 trillion won in the second quarter of 2009.

Its operating margin was 8.1 percent, the highest for any first quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

LG's record-setting performance was anchored by its home appliance and air solution unit that posted 6.7 trillion won in revenue, up 23.8 percent from a year ago, and 919.9 billion won in operating profit, up 22.1 percent from year earlier.

Both sales and operating income were also the largest for the unit in its quarterly performance.

In the second quarter, LG said it expects to see on-year growth in revenue.

LG said its OLED TV shipments in the first quarter outperformed the company's expectations, and it aims to double this year's OLED TV sales from last year.

LG earlier this month announced it will exit the smartphone business by the end of July.

The company said profit and loss for discontinued operations will be included in the second quarter results.