LG Electronics says third-quarter profit down 3.7 percent vs. year earlier

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Electronics Inc said on Thursday its third-quarter operating profit fell 3.7 percent from a year earlier, dragged down by a record quarterly loss for its mobile division.

The world's No. 2 television maker behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said in a regulatory filing its July-September profit was 283 billion won ($248 million), matching an earlier estimate. Revenue for the quarter dropped 5.7 percent to 13.2 trillion won.

LG's mobile division reported its worst-ever quarterly operating loss of 436.4 billion won, its sixth straight quarter in the red, offsetting a record 381.5 billion won profit for the TV division.

LG said its fourth-quarter profit would be weaker than the third quarter's due to higher promotional expenses and weaker earnings for its appliances business due to seasonal weakness.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Joseph Radford)