Samsung might be having a hard time dealing with the calamitous global recall of its Note 7 smartphone at the moment, but its earnings don't appear to be suffering as a result.
In a recent earnings preview, the electronics company has announced that it estimates its operating profit has risen this quarter by 6 percent. Not only is this an admirable growth in the face of a recall that analysts are expecting to cost the company $1.8 billion, it's actually a higher growth than anticipated.
Though experts had anticipated mo' money being made, they predicted small growth to 7.5 trillion won from a 7.4 trillion won profit last year. Instead, Samsung is looking at earnings of around 7.8 trillion won (around US $7billion/ £5 billion/ AU $9 billion).
Growing strong
Apparently, this continued success is because Samsung's Note 7 losses are being offset by the other successful parts of its company, particularly its computer chip and smartphone display divisions.
Kim Young Woo, an analyst at SK Securities, told the Associated Press that "We'll see an earnings surprise in the display and memory chip businesses," with numbers showing that "they are the two growth engines for Samsung."
Kim estimates that nearly half of Samsung's overall income was generated by its components division which includes computer chips and displays, adding that he believes the profits for its mobile division had actually plunged to its lowest level in three quarters.
It's thanks to the booming sales of its displays and computer chips, though, that analysts are saying Samsung's profits are only likely to grow over the coming quarters with these sales acting as a buffer as the Note 7 battery crisis continues.
Unfortunately for Samsung, that problem doesn't appear to be going away any time soon – rumors of a second recall are brewing as the company now has to investigate reports of one of its recalled Note 7 devices catching fire on a Southwest Airlines flight.
Samsung has said it will release a more detailed report on its earnings at the end of this month.
