LS Electric achieved its best-ever results last year, powered by growing demand in the global power market centered on North America and a surge in data center investments.
LS Electric disclosed on the 27th that, on a consolidation basis, last year's revenue was tentatively tallied at 4.9622 trillion won, up 9% from a year earlier, and operating profit rose 9.6% to 426.9 billion won. Both revenue and operating profit were the highest on an annual basis.
Fourth-quarter revenue was 1.5208 trillion won, up 11.9% from a year earlier, marking a quarterly record. Operating profit rose 8.6% to 130.2 billion won.
The strong results were driven by growth in global businesses centered on power systems for North American big tech data centers and ultra-high-voltage transformers. Orders related to global data centers surpassed 1 trillion won last year. LS Electric said a selective order environment focused on high-margin projects led overall profit growth.
In particular, revenue in North America increased about 30% last year, surpassing 1 trillion won for the first time. LS Electric plans to accelerate revenue growth by securing leadership in the North American power distribution market, which is estimated to be about six times larger than the ultra-high-voltage transformer market.
The ASEAN region also contributed to results, backed by retaining the No. 1 position in Vietnam's low-voltage power equipment market and a surge in power infrastructure investment in Indonesia. Simpos, the Indonesian subsidiary acquired in 2023, recorded double-digit operating profit growth thanks to a successful localization strategy.
The order backlog also hit an all-time high at about 5 trillion won at the end of last year. That was an increase of about 900 billion won from the previous quarter, with ultra-high-voltage transformers accounting for about 2.7 trillion won.
An LS Electric official said, "With strong performance in our core businesses such as North American data center power systems and ultra-high-voltage transformers, we have opened the era of 1 trillion won in North American revenue," and added, "This year, we will expand next-generation businesses, including HVDC (high-voltage direct current) and ESS (energy storage system), and solidify our position as a global total power solutions corporation by targeting new markets such as Europe and the Middle East."