Samsung expects 10-fold rise in profits

Samsung Electronics said Friday it expects first-quarter operating profits to rise more than 10-fold year on year as chip prices recover.

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The tech giant said in a regulatory filing that January-March operating profits were expected to rise 931.3 percent to 6.6 trillion won ($4.89 billion). Operating profits in the same period last year totalled around 640 billion won.

The expectation exceeded the average estimate by 20.5 percent, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which referenced its financial data firm.

Sales, meanwhile, are expected to rise 11.4 percent to 71 trillion won, Samsung said.

South Korean chipmakers, led by Samsung, enjoyed record profits in recent years as prices for their products soared, but a global economic slowdown dealt a blow to memory chip sales.

However, the semiconductor market had been predicted to recover this year and grow 11.8 percent, according to industry monitor World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

The news from Samsung comes after South Korea's SK Hynix -- the world's second-largest memory chip maker -- announced in January that it had returned to profit after four consecutive quarters of losses.

Samsung's overall outlook is "fortified by a resurgence in the smartphone market, escalating DRAM (memory chip) prices",  Neil Shah, vice president of Counterpoint Research, told AFP.

Samsung is expected to release its final earnings report at the end of this month.