SEOUL, April 14 (UPI) -- Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday its net income for the first quarter rose 25.8 percent from a year ago, helped by equity gains from overseas subsidiaries.
But the South Korean technology giant's quarterly operating profit slumped 24.9 percent, hit by sliding margins in mobile phones and memory chips plus the won's sharp rise against the U.S. dollar.
The world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips earned $1.95 billion in net profits for the first three months of 2006, up from $1.6 billion a year earlier.
Sales edged up 1.1 percent on-year to $14.5 billion. The company saw $1.7 billion in operating profits for the quarter, against $2.3 billion a year ago.
On a quarterly basis, net profits dropped 27 percent from the previous three months, and sales slumped 10 percent from the fourth quarter last year. Operating profits also saw a 24 percent decline on the previous quarter.
Chu Woo-sik, senior vice president of the company's investor relations, said he expected the business environment in the second-quarter to worsen due to the won's strength. "The first-quarter results don't look good because of the foreign exchange rate," Chu said.
