Samsung Electronics posts record earnings

SEOUL: South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics posted record-breaking earnings on Thursday, putting it on course to better rival Apple’s quarterly profits as it seeks to move past a bribery scandal and a damaging recall debacle.

The firm said huge sales of its new Galaxy S8 smartphone and demand for its memory chips were behind the jump in April-June and predicted another blockbuster report for the current quarter to September. It said operating profit soared a forecastbeating 72.9 per cent from the previous year to 14.07 trillion won ($12.6 billion), compared with consensus forecasts of $10.6 billion for US titan Apple, which is due to report next week. However, Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities, said: “Samsung has surpassed its rivals for now but Apple usually sees little fluctuation in its profits whereas Samsung’s profits fluctuate largely on memory chip prices.” Apple is expected to outstrip Samsung in full-year results.

The world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips also said net profit surged almost 90 per cent to 11.05 trillion won, its best quarterly result in five years.

Samsung shares ended down 0.08 per cent in Seoul. “The S8 has indeed helped get Samsung back onto its feet, hopefully putting the Note7 debacle behind it,” Bryan Ma, a technology industry analyst at IDC, said before the announcement.

“But we also have to keep in mind that a lot of Samsung’s momentum is from memory and displays too, so it’s not all about the S8, either,” he said, according to Bloomberg News. — AFP