Samsung reports 26% jump in Q4 profit as sales of its products rise amid Covid-19 pandemic

South Korean firm Samsung Electronics reported a 26 per cent jump in its fourth quarter operating profit as coronavirus pandemic driven remote working and TV-watching fuelled sales of chips and display panels.

Operating profit for the three months ending December 31 rose to 9 trillion Korean won ($8.23 billion), the company said in a preliminary earnings report on Friday. Sales for the quarter rose 1.9 per cent to 61tn won.

The company provides only estimates of quarterly revenue (sales) and operating profit in its preliminary earnings release. Full earnings are due later this month.

“Work-from-home will become entrenched,” Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities told Reuters. “Samsung’s supply comments, and investments in non-memory chips, will be issues to watch out for when full results are announced.”

Samsung is expected to launch a new line-up of its Galaxy S series smartphones and a slew of other products at a virtual event on January 14.

The company will release three new phones – the S21, the S21 Plus and the S21 Ultra, according to the latest industry leaks.

The standard model, the S21, will have a 15.7-centimetre flat display with a hole-punch selfie camera rooted in the top centre of the screen. Meanwhile, the S21 Plus and the S21 Ultra are expected to have curved displays ranging between 17cm and 17.5cm.

Samsung is currently battling Apple and Huawei to retain its market dominance in the global smartphone market.

The world’s biggest smartphone and chip manufacturer posted a 59 per cent year-on-year jump in operating profit to 12.35 trillion Korean won in the three months to September 30, marking its highest quarterly profit since the fourth quarter of 2018 and almost 52 per cent more on a quarter-on-quarter basis.