Samsung Electronics reported a profit for the first-quarter that increased about 55 percent from last year.
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Total revenue grew about 20 percent from last year. It expects Mobile earnings for the second-quarter to decrease quarter-over-quarter due to a slowdown in sales of its flagship models and increased marketing expenses to address the situation.
Net income attributable to the shareholders of the parent company for the first quarter of 2018 rose 55.06 percent to 11.61 trillion Korean won from 7.49 trillion won last year.
Quarterly operating profit increased 58.03 percent to 15.64 trillion won from 9.90 trillion won in the previous year.
Profitability improved significantly in the quarter thanks to the Semiconductor Business and the early global launch of the Galaxy S9. All in all, the operating margin in the first quarter was 25.8 percent, up 6.2 percentage points year-over-year.
Total revenue for the quarter grew 19.82 percent to 60.56 trillion won from 50.55 trillion won in the prior year. First quarter revenue was primarily led by Samsung's Memory Business and increased sales of its flagship mobile products, including the Galaxy S9.
By business unit, the Semiconductor Business' significant earnings performance was driven by demand for memory chipsets for high value-added servers and graphics products.
The System LSI and Foundry businesses also contributed to first quarter earnings, backed by strong demand for chips used for smartphones and crypto-currency mining.
For the Display Panel segment, which manufactures OLED and LCD screens, profits were affected by slow demand for flexible OLED panels and greater competition between rigid OLED and LTPS LCD.
An imbalance between supply and demand in the LCD market, brought on by competitors' increased production capacity, also weighed on earnings.
For the IT & Mobile Communications Division, the early launch of the Galaxy S9 and solid sales of the Galaxy S8 smartphones resulted in considerable growth in earnings. ■