LG Display Co., Ltd. (NYSE:LPL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: The next question will be presented by from KIWOOM Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you. I also have two questions. Now, first is about the LCD TV exist strategy and the company explained earlier how the company has accelerated the execution of this exist strategy. So, I believe that as a result of this, it will place the company in a different position from the peers in terms of financial performance. So, if you could give us a guidance on the financial performance for the first quarter as well as for the year. And the second question is about the specific business plan. Since the company also discussed the market creating businesses as well as the plan to strengthen the future business portfolio, so if the company can provide more details about the business plan. Thank you.

Unidentified Company Representative: Now first, about the outlook for the year and there is a clear response to this and it is low in the first half and high in the second half. And now, we all know that the macro economy continues to struggle. So, then this means that demand is likely to remain slow into the first half of the year. And then also the situation that we had been seeing since last year where the purchase of panels fell short of the actual sales of sets, we believe that this phenomenon is likely to continue into the first half of the year as inventory adjustment continues. Now, given this environment then the one of the options given to the company is to go into large scale cost cutting. And that is what we have been doing.

So, in order to reduce the inventory burden, last year we had reduced the inventory level by about KRW1.6 trillion across one quarter. So, we believe that that is going to provide us with the positive benefits in the first quarter of this year. In addition to that, we also have taken actions to downsize or reduce production of the large size business. And we are also cutting costs by rationalizing our business structure. So, all-in-all, I believe that in terms of the innovation or the rationalization of our business, and also reducing of the inventory, this will bring about a cost cutting benefit of about KRW1 trillion in the first quarter. So, at the end of this process, what we are expecting is to see revenue growth start in the second quarter and the loss shrinking.

And as a result, we hope to see the beginning of a turnaround in the second half of the year.

Hee Yeon Kim: Now, this is the CSO, Hee Yeon Kim speaking about our business plan. And so I would like to explain our business plan based on the three businesses gaming monitors, and transparent OLED and sound solutions. Based on our competitive large OLED, we are trying to target the new business segment which is the high end gaming monitor where the customers are willing to pay more. So, we are currently in discussions with around eight to nine customers. And our plan is to go into mass production within the year. And second for the transparent OLED, we are currently targeting the key vertical customers who can see the importance of these products for retail and construction purposes. Now for the transparent product, unlike others, this is not something that we can address as standalone products.