Samsung’s earnings results beat forecast
Samsung Electronics has reported forecast-beating earnings results that were the best in two years as consumers snapped up its Galaxy smartphones, in a sign the company is getting its mojo back while rivals fail to deliver new smartphones. The South Korean company forecast that its performance will continue to be “solid” during the rest of the year because demand for its components, such as high-end OLED displays, is expected to increase “substantially”. It expects to spend more, however, on mobile marketing of its upcoming largescreen smartphones, to be announced next week, which Samsung typically uses to distract consumers from new iPhone launches by Apple. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, said its April-June net income rose 2 per cent over a year earlier to 5.85 trillion won ($7.3 billion), compared with 5.75t won a year earlier. That was slightly higher than forecasts, which have been revised upward in recent months to reflect stronger-thanexpected sales of the new phones. Analysts had forecast net income of 5.79t won, according to FactSet, a financial data provider. Sales rose 5 per cent to 50.94t won, while operating profit surged 18 per cent to 8.14t won, in line with the company’s guidance earlier this month. Samsung beat forecasts even as growth in the overall smartphone industry slowed. Its rival Apple, the world’s second-largest smartphone maker, is struggling to boost iPhone sales and reported a 27 per cent quarterly drop in profits. Samsung estimates it shipped between 75.6m and 78.3m smartphones during the quarter, almost twice as many as Apple’s 40.4m iPhone sales.