LG Display returns to profit in 2025 for 1st time in 4 years

Models promote LG Display’s large OLED panels at the company’s booth during CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Jan. 8. Courtesy of LG Display

LG Display posted an operating profit in 2025, marking its first profitable year in four years, as its business overhaul toward high-value organic LED (OLED) panels and operational efficiency improvements began to pay off.

According to the company on Wednesday, it logged 25.81 trillion won ($18 billion) in sales and 517 billion won in operating profit for 2025. Sales slightly declined by 3 percent from 26.62 trillion won in 2024, but the company swung to an operating profit from a loss of 560.6 billion won a year earlier.

The company attributed the rebound to increased OLED sales and improvements in cost structure and operational efficiency, despite global market volatility.

OLED accounted for a record-high 61 percent of LG Display’s sales mix, up from 32 percent in 2020 and 55 percent in 2025. This stemmed from the company’s exit from the large-size liquid crystal display (LCD) business last year, which accelerated its structural reform toward high-value products.

By segment, panels for monitors, laptops and tablets accounted for 37 percent of sales, while smartphone and other mobile panels made up 36 percent. Panels for TVs and automobiles accounted for 19 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

The company’s supply of OLED panels for the iPhone 17 series is also believed to have played a role in the improvement. LG Display is now supplying OLED panels for iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPhone Air. The series showed strong popularity in major markets such as the United States and China, helping Apple reclaim the top spot in global smartphone shipments in 2025.

The market is now watching to see whether LG Display can break away from its long-standing pattern of posting losses in the first half of a year before recovering with profits in the second half.

“The company has repeatedly posted weaker results in the first half and stronger performance in the second half because high-margin mobile panel shipments have been concentrated in the latter half, while losses from the LCD business weighed heavily on the first half,” IBK Securities analyst Kang Min-goo said.

“From the first half of this year, the full effects of exiting the LCD TV business and discontinuing low-margin LCD panels are expected to drive a successful turnaround.”

LG Display said it plans to continue strengthening its technological and cost competitiveness this year based on its artificial intelligence transformation, while enhancing management efficiency to build a stable profit structure.

“Despite continued external uncertainties throughout 2025, we were capable of achieving a turnaround after concentrating on high-value products and improving operation efficiency,” LG Display Chief Financial Officer Kim Sung-hyun said. “This year, we will continue focusing on transforming the company into a technology-driven business while building a sustainable profit structure.”