Seoul, July 22: South Korea's biggest home appliances maker, LG Electronics, reported on Tuesday a better-than-expected 24 per cent drop in quarterly profits, hit by a sluggish economy and the SARS outbreak in China. Profit margins at the world's sixth-largest cell phone maker have eroded after a recession hit the economy, triggering a price war in key products such as refrigerators and televisions.
Analysts said profits from the flagship company of South Korea's second-biggest business conglomerate, LG Group, were likely to have bottomed out in the second quarter and growth in flat screen television sales would help profits recover in the second half.

LG, the world's top maker of air conditioners, earned 258 billion won ($219 million) net profit in the second quarter, beating consensus forecasts from analysts of 220 billion won. This compared with a 340.7 billion won profit a year ago.
Turnover dropped to 4.67 trillion won from 4.9 trillion won as it pushed out products at cheaper prices to pry open consumer wallets. Bureau Report