Samsung posts record profit on strong smartphone sales

Seoul - Net profit at Samsung Electronics Co rose by more than three-quarters year-on-year in the last three months of 2012 thanks to smartphone sales, the company said Friday.

The South Korean electronics manufacturer said net profit was up 75.6 per cent to 7.04 trillion won, largely thanks to sales of its flagship Galaxy range of mobile phones.

Operating profit reached a record 8.84 trillion won (8.3 billion dollars) for the quarter, up 89 per cent from a year earlier.

Revenue was 56.06 trillion won, a rise of 18.5 per cent from the last quarter of 2011.

For the year, net profit was 23.85 trillion won, up 73.3 per cent from the previous year. Operating profit was 29.05 trillion won, and revenue was 201.1 trillion won, it said.

The company’s mobile phone division accounted for more than 60 per cent of the latest quarter’s operating profit at 5.44 trillion won, up from 2.56 trillion won a year earlier.

Samsung, the most significant rival to iPhone maker Apple Inc, does not release quarterly shipment figures but is thought to have sold 63 million smartphones from October to December, according to analysts cited by the Yonhap News Agency.

Samsung senior vice president and head of investor relations Robert Yi said competition in the handset sector "will intensify further as demand slows and the mid- to low-end market expands" in 2013. He also expressed caution over the continued strength of the Korean won.//dpa