LG Electronics reported its strongest quarterly profit in nearly two years, after strong sales of its high-end television sets boosted the South Korean manufacturer's bottom line. The world's second-largest TV maker on Tuesday said sales of large-screen TVs combined with lower material costs to yield high returns in the first quarter, and that it expects TV revenue to increase in the second quarter.

For January-March, LG reported a 44 percent on-year rise in operating profit to 504 billion won ($486.89 million).

LG's TV division logged profit of 240 billion won, compared with a 11 billion won a year earlier, as a decline in panel prices and reduced marketing needs during a seasonally weak period kept costs down.

"Revenues (for the television business) are expected to increase in the second quarter with new model launches," the company said in a statement.

LG's mobile division ran an operating loss of 9 billion won, compared with a 133 billion won profit a year earlier, even as smartphone shipments grew by an annual 19 percent to 12.3 million units. Higher revenues are expected in the second quarter with the release of the flagship LG G3 smartphone and wider roll-out of the mass-tier L Series III.