LS Electric Co. told investors on Wednesday that third-quarter consolidated sales reached 1.88 trillion won and operating profit hit 233.5 billion won, both record highs for a single quarter and the capstone of a streak few industrial groups in Korea can match.
The Anyang-based power-equipment maker said operating margin widened to 12.4 percent, up 4.1 percentage points from a year earlier, as high-voltage switchgear and data-center power packages carried fatter pricing. Net income rose 116.8 percent to 142.8 billion won, though that figure came in a touch below the 148.5 billion won average estimate compiled by Yonhap Infomax.
Orders tied to AI infrastructure
Management attributed the jump to a pipeline heavy with artificial-intelligence data-center projects and extra-high-voltage transformer upgrades in North America. Switchgear revenue climbed 120 percent year on year, while ultra-high-voltage transformer sales rose 106 percent. Mass-market distribution gear still grew 32 percent, giving the quarter a broader base than the 2022–2023 cycle when exports alone carried results.
North American revenue reached about 500 billion won in the quarter, roughly 25 percent above the second quarter and a company record for the region. LS Electric is adding capacity at its Utah and Texas campuses to shorten lead times for U.S. grid operators racing to energize new server halls. Revenue at its Spanish unit more than doubled, and Middle East sales rose 61 percent on transmission rebuilds.
Backlog and the next test
Backlog stood near 7 trillion won at quarter-end, with new orders of about 1.6 trillion won booked during the three months. That order book underpins management’s argument that the AI power supercycle is not a one-quarter story, even as Seoul traders debate whether U.S. hyperscaler spending can keep pace with debt-funded build-outs.
Analysts who had modeled slightly higher net profit pointed to foreign-exchange swings and mix shift toward early-stage U.S. projects with longer commissioning curves. Still, the earnings release landed on the same day the Kospi rallied more than 3 percent on eased AI-spending anxiety, and LS Electric shares gained about 7 percent in regular trading as investors treated the print as confirmation that grid gear makers are sharing in the infrastructure bill.
Chief Executive Officer and other executives will host a conference call Thursday morning to detail 2027 shipment schedules for data-center busway and energy-storage systems. For now, the filing’s headline number is the 100th straight quarter in the black—an endurance record only a dozen members of Korea’s top 500 companies by revenue have matched.