Samsung's Galaxy phone drives record $5.9bn quarterly profit The euro has fallen around 5pc against the Korean won since April, and about 8pc in the past year, to two-year lows. In its April-June earnings guidance on Friday, Samsung, valued at $170bn (£110bn) and the world's leading maker of TVs, smartphones and DRAM memory chips, estimated operating profit jumped 79pc to 6.7 trillion won (£3.8bn) from a year ago - in line with an average forecast in a Reuters survey of 23 analysts. That would be 14.5pc higher than the previous record quarterly profit in January-March. Samsung estimated its second-quarter revenue at 47 trillion won, just below a 50 trillion won forecast. "Revenue is below our forecast, which suggests price pressure was more severe than had been expected in products such as televisions and home appliances," said Nho Geun-chang, analyst at HMC Investment Securities in Seoul. "Earnings will be stronger in the current quarter as sales of the high-end Galaxy S III will increase dramatically and drive the telecom division's earnings to above five trillion won," he said, predicting shipments of the S III would hit 19m this quarter. Samsung is due to release its full second-quarter results - the first since former components chief Kwon Oh-hyun took over as CEO - towards the end of this month. Samsung and local rival LG Electronics are among the few global TV makers making money and gaining market share from stumbling Japanese rivals Sony, Panasonic and Sharp. But, spooked particularly by a weak chip market, Samsung shares have dropped 15pc in the past two months, while the broader Korean market has fallen just over 5pc, and Apple has gained almost 3pc. On Friday, Samsung shares dipped 1pc to 1.173m won, while the broader market was off 0.4pc. Profit from the mobile division is likely to have more than doubled to around 4.4 trillion won from a year ago, with sales of around 50 million smartphones - at a rate of 380 every minute. Current quarter mobile profits are expected to forge further ahead as the latest Galaxy model enjoys a boom before the next iPhone launch. Samsung's overall third-quarter operating profit is likely to be between 7.3 trillion won and 8.5 trillion won, an increase of as much as 27pc from the second quarter, according to a Reuters survey of 13 analysts. The mobile business brings in more than 70pc of Samsung's earnings. While the next iPhone, expected later this year, will likely slow Samsung's handset earnings growth, it will boost the Korean firm's semiconductor earnings as Samsung is the sole producer of processing chips used to power the iPhone and iPad, and also supplies Apple with mobile memory chips, NAND flash and display screens. "Earnings will grow further as the semiconductor division will also stage a solid recovery on the back of improving DRAM and NAND demand," said Jeff Kang, an analyst at Daishin Securities, adding the division could increase earnings by 1 trillion won this quarter.