Samsung reports $9bn profit, names new executives

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced net profit of 11.1 trillion won ($9.89 billion) in the third quarter this year -- a 245 per cent increase from the same quarter last year.

The profit was boosted by the strong returns from its chip business. Sales also rose by 29.7 per cent to stand at a record high of 62 trillion won, Efe News reported on Tuesday.

The company said its operating profit in the July-September period reached 14.53 trillion won (nearly $13 billion), representing a 279.4 per cent increase.

Both the operating profit and the sales revenue of the electronics giant are in line with its forecasts published on October 13.

The semiconductor business was again its brightest sector in the third quarter, with a record operating profit of 9.96 trillion won, which is almost three times as much as a year ago due to rising seasonal demand and the price increase of its products.

The company also reported that the IT and Mobile Communications division, which includes smartphones, posted an operating profit of 3.29 trillion won.

This is 3,000 per cent more compared to the dire figure in last year's third quarter, when the company found itself in a full fiasco caused by its Galaxy Note 7, whose production was eventually suspended due to repeated cases of battery defects, causing the device to overheat and combust or explode.

Even so, and despite the excellent reception of its new Galaxy Note 8, the figure is 19 per cent lower than that of the previous quarter due to the unfavourable demand for its mid- and low-end models in the last three months.

Samsung's flagship smartphone Galaxy Note8 on Friday won the 'Gadget of the Year' award at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2017 here.

Nearly 1.5 lakh people had pre-registered the device on Amazon, with 72,000 pre-booking the flagship device on the very first day when the registrations opened. Nearly one lakh people registered to buy Galaxy Note 8 on Samsung India website, industry sources told IANS.

The company also announced that, given its continued record yields, it will increase the annual dividend to be distributed this year by 20 per cent from the current volume to approximately 4.8 trillion won.

That amount will double to 9.6 trillion won in 2018, 2019 and 2020, it added. 

Meanwhile, in the absence of heir apparent lee Jae-yong, Samsung said it has named new executives to head its business divisions.

The company named Kim Ki-nam to head the device solutions division, which oversees the company's chip business, Yonhap news agency reported.

Kim Hyun-suk was named to head the consumer electronics division while Koh Dong-jin was tapped as the new head of the IT and mobile division, effective immediately.

Samsung said it would maintain the current three co-CEO management structure.

The announcement came as Samsung's CEO and Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun, who also headed the chip business, offered to resign in October, along with Yoon Boo-keun and Shin Jong-kyun, who headed the consumer electronics and mobile divisions respectively. 

Kwon, Yoon and Shin will remain as members of the board until March.

Samsung said that while lee Sang-hoon would step down from the seat as the Chief Financial Officer, he was recommended to succeed Kwon as the chairman of the board in March.