(LEAD) Samsung Electronics reports 50 pct jump in Q4 operating profit

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SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday its operating profit for the fourth quarter of 2016 jumped 50.11 percent on year, thanks to rising prices of semiconductors and display panels.

Operating profit, which excludes income from subsidiaries, stood at 9.2 trillion won (US$7.89 billion) for the October-December period last year, compared with 6.14 trillion won for the same quarter in 2015, Samsung said in a regulatory filing.

Compared with a quarter earlier, fourth-quarter operating profit surged 77.34 percent.

Fourth-quarter sales gained 0.03 percent on year to 53.3 trillion won, Samsung said.

The handsome earnings came even as Samsung is struggling to limit the damage done by the global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones over safety concerns that cost about $5.3 billion during the fourth quarter last year.

The result beat analysts' expectations. A survey of 17 brokerages by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, had expected that Samsung would report a fourth-quarter operating profit of 8.4 trillion won.

It was the first time since the third quarter of 2013 that Samsung's quarterly operating profit surpassed 9 trillion won.

"Fourth quarter earnings were driven by the components businesses, mainly the memory business and the display panel segment," Samsung said in a statement.

"The stronger U.S. dollar against the Korean won also had a positive impact on operating profits," it said.

Samsung's semiconductor business posted an operating profit of 4.95 trillion won for the fourth quarter on sales of 14.86 trillion won.

"The memory division achieved strong earnings growth in the fourth quarter by focusing on high profitability and a differentiated product mix," Samsung said.

For all of last year, Samsung posted an operating profit of 29.2 trillion won, up 10.7 percent from 2015.
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