Record profits at Samsung on handset sales
SAMSUNG, the world’s top technology firm by revenue, reported a record quarterly profit this morning, aided by its best-ever sales of smartphones, and hiked 2012 capital investment nine per cent to 25 trillion won (£8.9bn) to boost chips and flat-screen production.
The South Korean firm reported a 5.3 trillion won operating profit for the last quarter of 2011, broadly in line with its earlier estimates and 76 per cent above its profit in the same period last year.
Samsung did not provide sales volume data for the fourth quarter but said shipments rose by around 30 per cent from the previous quarter. Analysts estimate Samsung’s fourth-quarter shipments at 35-37m, putting it slightly behind Apple.