Samsung tips record Q4 profit of $8.3bln

SEOUL - Agence France-Presse

A man using a mobile phone walks past a Samsung Electronics’ ad. REUTERS photo

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics said yesterday it expected to post a record operating profit of 8.8 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The predicted operating profit for October-December represents an 89 percent rise from a year earlier, and would beat the record of 8.1 trillion won set in the previous quarter.

Samsung, the world’s largest technology firm by revenue, was giving earnings guidance before announcing official results later this month.

Fourth-quarter sales were estimated at 56 trillion won, up 18.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the company, which did not provide figures for each of its business divisions.

Samsung, also the world’s leading smartphone and memory chip maker, did not disclose its net profit estimate.

For Samsung, 2012 was a watershed year that saw it take a giant bite out of Apple as it carved out a dominant position in the global mobile computing market.

Samsung dominated 31.3 percent of the smart phone market, becoming the world’s top cell phone manufacturer.