LG Chemical On the Move

Company has outstanding H1 with sales rising 30 pct and operating profit up 80 pct in Q2 thanks to 'speed management'

LG Chemical has made a name for itself lately with its superb performance record, especially in the stock market, and is the only company in the petrochemical industry to have such an outstanding year thus far. Its record has been so excellent that its shares have been on the recommended buy lists of analysts for major securities firms in Korea.
The company's Q2 report shows that sales amounted to 4.3 trillion won, up 29.5 percent YoY, operating profit reached 527.1 billion won, up 80.5 percent YoY, normal profit hit 516 billion won, up 74,5 percent and net profit totaled 375.3 billion won, up 58.6 percent, the largest quarterly record since the company first launched its operations.
The excellent second quarter brought the company's H1 sales to 8.4 trillion won, operating profit to 928.3 billion won and net profit to 633.7 billion won, far above the same period last year. This outstanding record is due to the company's "speed management"engineered by Vice Chairman Kim Ban-seok.
The vice chairman said he told every officer and staff member to double the speed of the implementation of business strategies and the reform of organizational culture based on speed management.
"The company has been able to achieve such superb performance results despite the poor business environment due to everyone in the company doing his or her best to meet the targets, thanks to speed management,"he said.
Industry sources said the company's record for Q3 will exceed the projection.
An analyst with Daeshin Securities said LG Chemical would have no trouble achieving quarterly sales of 3.74 trillion won and operating profit of 422.3 billion won, sound figures despite the poor business environment.
The healthy performance record boosted the price of its shares to new highs. It was quoted at 93,600 won per share on Sept. 26 versus 63,300 won per share on Jan. 23, up 47 percent during the eight-month period.
Even foreign investors began to buy LG Chemical shares for seven consecutive days from Sept. 17-25 to the tune of some 700,000 shares. An analyst with Hyundai Securities said those foreign investors have been drawn by the company's engagement in the materials for the IT and electronics sectors, despite having "Chemical"in its name, showing that the company can easily jump into a given sector, boosting the company's outlook.
The company, in fact, has been looking into the information technology electronics material sector and has decided to foster the sector as its future growth engine. The company has been expanding its engagement in the display, energy, environment and bio sectors with a special focus on the energy sector.
The company has been working hard on the energy area to the extent that it has been picked as the supplier of the lithium-polymer battery for a hybrid car to be produced by Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors from next year.
The company is already prepared to turn out the hybrid car battery at its plant in the Ochang Techno Park in Chungwon, North Chungcheong Province.
Industry sources said the market for the lithium polymer battery would amount to 1.4 trillion won in 2012. LG Chemical is determined to take a 300 billion won share of the market. nw

Vice Chmn. Kim Ban-seok of LG Chemical Co.

LG Chemical's interior materials