South Korea's top home appliance maker, LG Electronics Inc., said on Saturday it was targeting 2005 sales to grow by a fifth to 30 trillion won ($28 billion), higher than analysts' expectations. The world's fifth-largest mobile phone maker also plans to boost investment by 40 percent to 3.5 trillion won from last year as it aimed to become one of the top three global information technology giants by 2010.
"We are targeting 2005 sales to rise by 20 percent from last year to 30 trillion won and investment by 40 percent to 3.5 trillion won," LG said in a public disclosure.
LG has posted record monthly handset shipments, reflecting the popularity of its mobile phones designs, with features such as swivelling cameras, and its early lead in selling pricey 3G phones to operators such as Hutchison Whampoa and France Telecom's Orange.
Analysts expect LG to post 27.4 trillion won in sales in 2005, up 13 percent from an estimated 24.3 trillion won in 2004, according to Reuters Estimates. LG, also the world's top maker of air conditioners, said the target would be achieved through management innovation, technology advancement and larger investment, but did not elaborate.
Among the total 3.5 trillion won investment, 1.7 trillion was earmarked for capital expenditure and the rest for research and development.
LG, a latecomer to the mobile phone market, has powered into contention in the last three years on a combination of well received designs and technology, and aggressive marketing in the United States and emerging markets.
LG overtook Japanese-Swedish joint venture Sony Ericsson in the third quarter of 2004 with a 7 percent market share of handset sales, research firm Strategy Analytics said.