Samsung announces earnings estimate

SEOUL, South Korea -

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest manufacturer of memory chips, announced quarterly earnings estimates for the first time Monday, saying it hopes to reduce market confusion and speculation about its performance.

The Suwon, South Korea-based corporation said it expects consolidated sales of between 31 trillion won ($24.46 billion) and 33 trillion won for the three months through June. That’s up from 29.1 trillion won in sales a year earlier.

The company, which is also the second-largest maker of mobile phones, estimated operating profit would come it at between 2.2 trillion won and 2.6 trillion won, compared with 2.4 trillion won last year.

Samsung gave no explanation for the expected performance, though investors reacted positively. Samsung’s shares rose 5.5 percent to close at 634,000 won. The results are scheduled to be released July 24.

The forecasts include the performance of its overseas and domestic subsidiaries excluding financial business, said Samsung spokeswoman Hwang Eun-ju.

The company does not release a quarterly consolidated net profit figure, however, and so issued no estimate for that. Samsung’s announcement also included no estimates for its earnings on a parent basis, which include net profit.

Last year, Samsung reported consolidated net profit of 5.89 trillion, down about 26 percent from 2007’s 7.92 trillion won.

The manufacturer said it plans to continue providing earnings estimates within several days following the end of each quarter.

“Samsung believes that growing interest in the company’s quarterly earnings and competing forecasts have led to more confusion in the market ahead of the recent earnings release announcements,” the company said.

It also hopes the move will “help enhance company transparency and provide investors with a more accurate expectation of the earnings.”

In the first quarter, Samsung’s net profit on a parent basis tumbled 72 percent to 619.20 billion won, while sales rose 8.5 percent to 18.57 trillion won.