Samsung Electronics Posts Record High Net Profit of 1.9 Trillion Won

Samsung Electronics posted quarterly largest sales in the first quarter (January to March) on the back of the recovery of semiconductor business.

It decided to add 1.5 trillion won for facility investment this year, as it posted better than expected business performance.

It announced in the Intermediate Representation (IR) on the 19th that `it made sales of 9.93 trillion won, operating profit of 2.1 trillion won, pretax profit of 2.41 trillion won, and net profit of 1.9 trillion won in the first quarter`.

This earnings performance is far larger than analysts` estimates, and same as 30 percent of all domestic listed companies` net profit total 6.6 trillion won (estimation of Hyundai Securities).

In comparison with the sales of 8 trillion and 482.8 billion won, operating profit of 69 billion won, and net profit of 402.5 billion won in the 4th quarter last year, sales rose by 17 percent, net profit 422 percent, and operating profit 2943 percent.

Semiconductor division returned to NO.1 in the sales volume from last year`s second to telecommunication division.

The sales by divisions numbered △ 2.97 trillion won(29.9 percent) in semiconductor division, △2.94 trillion won(29.6 percent) in telecommunication division, △2.67 trillion won(26.8 percent) in digital media division, △920 billion won(9.3 percent) in home appliance division, and △430 billion won(4.4 percent) in new enterprises and the rest.

As a result Samsung Electronics announced that it would raise the scale of investment on the facilities to 4.55 trillion won adding 1.5 trillion won to the first 3.05 trillion won.

It decided to inject additional 760 billion won to 5th generation TFT-LCD line, and 740 billion won to No. 11 line or 12-inch wafer line.

ysshin@donga.com · sunshade@donga.com