LG Electronics said Wednesday that it swung to a net profit in the first quarter of this year, aided by increased sales of TVs and smartphones.

The South Korean company Wednesday reported net profit of 243 billion won ($215 million) for the January-March period. It had a loss of 15.8 billion won a year earlier.

Sales declined 7.08 percent on-year to 12.2 trillion won in the three-month period with the company posting an operating profit of 448.2 billion won, a 242.5 percent surge from 130.8 billion won in the previous year.

LG is regaining competitiveness with the introduction of its Optimus series of smartphones and by allocating more resources to high-end phones. The company expects to strengthen its smartphone line-up even more in the second quarter with the introduction of its L-Style series and quad-core smartphones.

Despite slow TV demand in Europe and other developed countries, LG's TV-making unit posted an operating profit that nearly doubled from a year earlier. The improvement was largely driven by strong sales of its premium 3-D TVs in South Korea such as CINEMA SCREEN 3D Smart TV. LG plans to leverage upcoming big ticket sporting events and the global roll-out of LG?s redesigned 2012 TV models to stimulate higher demand for its Home Entertainment products.

"The planned expansion of three-dimensional smart TVs and an expected rise in demand for large flat-panel displays ahead of the London Olympics should help business figures in the second quarter," LG said.

LG also said sales of air-conditioning and energy solution systems helped the strong first-quarter bottom line. LG Air Conditioning and Energy Solution Company saw operating profit more than double from the same period last year to KRW 81 billion (USD 71.6 million) thanks to new high-end products and cost structure improvements.