Samsung Electronics' Q2 operating profit estimated at 13 tln won

SEOUL, July 6 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co.'s operating profit for the second quarter is expected to reach a record-high level of 13 trillion won (US$12 billion), market watchers said Thursday.

The South Korean tech giant is set to announce its second-quarter earnings guidance Friday.

According to the data compiled by FnGuide, South Korean brokerage houses estimated Samsung's second-quarter operating profit at 13.1 trillion won, which is higher than the previous record of 10.1 trillion won posted in the third quarter of 2013.

KB Securities Co. expected Samsung's operating profit for the April-June period to stand at 13.4 trillion won, up 64.9 percent on-year.

By sector, the tech giant's chip business is expected to rake in an operating profit of 7.4 trillion won, followed by the mobile and display sectors with 3.5 trillion won and 1.7 trillion won, respectively. The consumer electronics arm is anticipated to post an operating profit of 500 billion won.

Analysts said the rosy performance is attributable to strong global prices of DRAM and NAND flash products, coupled with sound sales of its flagship smartphones -- the Galaxy S8 series.

The rising demand for flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) products, as well as the increasing price of liquid-crystal display (LCD) panels, will also lend support to Samsung's latest earnings, analysts added.

Samsung Electronics' first-quarter operating profit came to 9.89 trillion won, up 48.27 percent from a year earlier. Sales increased 1.54 percent on-year to reach 50.5 trillion won over the cited period.

colin@yna.co.kr
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