SEOUL: South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics flagged a 44.19 percent rise in first quarter operating profit Wednesday, largely driven by robust sales of smartphones and the launch of its flagship Galaxy S21 series.
The company said in an earnings estimate that it expected operating profits of 9.3 trillion won ($8.3 billion) for January to March, up from 6.45 trillion won a year earlier.
Samsung Electronics is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung group, by far the largest of the family-controlled empires known as chaebols that dominate business in South Korea, the world’s 12th largest economy.
It is crucial to the country’s economic health — the…
