S.Korea's Samsung sees 3.3 billion dollar profit in Q4
South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip and flat-screen TV maker, on Thursday estimated it would post a 3.3 billion dollar profit for the three months to December.
The predicted consolidated operating profit would be 3.7 trillion won (3.3 billion dollars) on sales of 39 trillion won during the September-December period.
The "earnings guidance" estimates came ahead of an official quarterly earnings report due later this month, the company said.
Samsung said it expects an operating profit of 10.92 trillion won on a record revenue of 136.05 trillion won for the full year 2009.
The firm's projected profit compared with an operating loss of 740 billion won a year earlier and 4.23 trillion won the previous quarter.
Despite the upbeat earnings guidance, Samsung Electronics shares fell 3.33 percent to 813,000 won as investors took profits from recent gains.
"The market is taking a breather, while some investors are turning cautious about any possible adverse effects of the Korean won's rapid appreciation against the US dollar to exporters, in particular car makers," Lee Jin-Woo of Mirae Asset Securities told Dow Jones Newswires.
Greg Roh at HMC Investment Securities said he expects Samsung to post an operating profit of four trillion won in the first quarter and 16 trillion for the whole of 2010 on solid demand for memory chips, handsets and flat-screen televisions.
(c) 2010 AFP
