Samsung Electronics' operating profit hits USD8.26b in Q4 

(MENAFN) Samsung Electronics announced that its operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2012 hit USD8.26 billion, the company's highest ever, driven by strong demand for smartphones, reported Xinhua News.

In the 3-month period, net income soared by 75 percent, reaching USD6.58 billion, meanwhile, sales grew by 18 percent to USD52.38 billion.

For the whole year, operating profit swelled 86 percent to USD27.17 billion, whereas net income hiked 73 percent to USD22.31 billion, and sales grew 22 percent to USD188 billion.

In the fourth quarter, operating profit of the mobile phone segment reached USD5.09 billion, contributing with over 60 percent of the quarter's total operating profit.

Furthermore, sales of smartphones rose by 9.6 percent on-quarter to 63.5 million devices, according to analysts, who expect the figure to surge 48.6 percent to 320 million smartphones during the current year.

The South Korean firm said that since its launch, sales of Galaxy S 3 smartphone have exceeded 40 million units, whereas sales of the Galaxy Note 2 phone-table device topped 5 million as of November 2012.

Operating profit of the consumer electronics segment hiked by 87 percent as a result of strong sales of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs in developed and emerging markets.

However, operating profit of the firm's display division, which makes TV panels, fell 5 percent as demand for notebook and monitor panel decelerated.

It is worth noting that operating profit in the semiconductor division grew to USD1.33 billion, as revenue gained 10 percent on high demand for server chips, 20-nano NAND flash chips and solid state drives (SSDs).