SEOUL: South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics said on Thursday that net profits rose nearly 50 percent in the first quarter, largely driven by robust sales of its smartphones and home appliances due to continued stay-at-home demand.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung group, by far the largest of the family-controlled empires known as chaebols that dominate business in South Korea, the world's 12th-largest economy.
The conglomerate is crucial to the South's economic health - its overall turnover is equivalent to a fifth of the national gross domestic product.
Samsung Electronics said net profits rose 46.3 percent in January-March from a year earlier to 7.1 trillion won ($6.4 billion).
"Solid sales of smartphones and consumer electronics outweighed lower earnings from semiconductors and displays," the firm said in an earnings report.
Operating profit rose 45.4 percent to 9.4 trillion won, while sales were up 18.2 percent to 65.4 trillion won.
The figures came a day after Samsung's controlling Lee family announced plans to pay more than $10 billion in inheritance taxes following the death last year of chairman Lee Kun-hee - one of the world's biggest-ever such settlements - and donate a vast trove of art including works by Picasso and Monet.
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