"코로나 이겨냈다"…삼성•LG전자, 1분기 '깜작 실적'
South Korean tech giants Samsung and LG have both beaten market expectations with their profits for the first quarter.
No breakdown of the numbers yet, but Samsung seems to have had strength in its chip business... while LG may have benefited from less competition in the home appliance industry.
Eum Ji-young has more.
Samsung Electronics has reported better-than-expected first quarter profits amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Samsung Electronics said in its earnings guidance on Tuesday that its operating profit for the first three months of this year likely went up 2-point-7 percent from a year ago,... slightly beating expectations.
As one of the first major tech names to report earnings amid the coronavirus pandemic,... the company said it expects 5-point-2 billion U.S. dollars in operating profit for the first quarter of this year,... up from the 5-billion it posted for the same period last year.
The company expects its consolidated sales to be 45-billion dollars, up almost 5 percent on-year.
Analysts say the company's semiconductor business might have helped the firm stay in the black during the pandemic,... as data centers fueled a recovery in memory chip markets,... one of Samsung's main profit centers.
LG Electronics also posted an earnings surprise for the first quarter of this year,... with figures far better than the market consensus.
According to the company's guidance report,... estimated operating profit came to about 893 million dollars for the January to March period,... up over 21 percent from the same period the year before.
"LG's home appliances might have brought solid revenues, and due to Chinese TV companies' lower production, there could have been less competition for LG."
However, South Korean businesses in general are not faring so well. The combined operating profit of companies listed on the benchmark KOSPI is projected to have slumped nearly 17-percent on-year in the first quarter.
Financial data provider FnGuide says the combined operating profit of 141 firms is set to be around
13-point-7 billon U.S. dollars,... down from 16-and-a-half billion for the same period last year.
Eum Ji-young, Arirang News.