Seoul, Jul 29 (IANS): LG Electronics on Thursday said it expected a solid third-quarter performance with growth in its auto parts business after delivering strong second-quarter results on the back of its home appliance unit amid the pandemic.

The South Korean tech giant said its operating profit spiked 65.5 percent to 1.11 trillion won ($968 million) in the April-June period, its best second-quarter performance since 2009.

Sales jumped 48.4 percent on-year to 17.1 trillion won over the cited period, its largest ever for any second quarter, reports Yonhap news agency.

The figures were in line with its earnings guidance announced earlier this month that slightly missed the market consensus.

Compared with the first quarter, when the company posted its best-ever quarterly performance, sales were down 3.9 percent, while operating profit declined 37 percent.

The company posted a net loss of 113.6 billion won in the second quarter as results from its mobile communications (MC) unit were considered discontinued operations. In April, LG announced it will exit from the smartphone business by July after years of losses.

LG said the net loss from discontinued operations of the MC unit was about 1.3 trillion won in the first half of the year, which includes provisions for customer management and service operation costs.

If excluding losses from operating activities in the first half, the net amount reaches 770 billion won. LG, however, declined to reveal the amount of compensation for its suppliers and inventory costs.

LG's home appliance & air solution (H&A) unit led the second-quarter performance as pent-up demand and robust sales of its premium appliances continued despite rising costs.

It reported 6.81 trillion won in sales, up 32.1 percent from a year ago, and 653.6 billion won in operating profit in the second quarter, up 6.8 percent from a year earlier.

For the third quarter, the company expected its home appliance sales to post year-on-year growth but pointed out that there will be pressure to increase costs as raw material prices and logistics expenses rise.

LG said the unit's third-quarter operating profit is estimated to be similar to that of last year's as the company will focus on improving operational efficiencies and product competitiveness in major markets.

LG said its OLED TVs accounted for more than 30 percent of its TV sales in the second quarter. The company expected demand for its premium TVs to grow steadily in the third quarter.