South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. confirmed Thursday a record-high three-month operating profit in the quarter ended in March, of which 11.55 trillion won ($10.72 billion) came from selling chips and offered to reward shareholders cash dividend of 2.4 trillion won.

The world’s largest chipmaker, which has spent 8.6 trillion won in facility upgrade and expansion and 7.2 trillion won in semiconductor sector, has not finalized its capex plan for this year, but indicated the spending would be smaller than last year’s 43.4 trillion won as it already moved onto next-generation facility in display through 4.2 trillion won investment.

In the final earnings report, the world’s top chipmaker said it raked in an operating profit of 15.64 trillion won, up 3.3 percent against the previous record-high of 15.1 trillion won in earlier three-month period and 58 percent against a year-ago period.

Sales totaled 60.56 trillion, off the all-time high of 65.98 trillion won in the previous quarter, but 20 percent stronger than a year earlier.

Given overall deterioration in non-chip sector, the company expects smaller figure in its bottom line in the following quarter.

Its first-quarter earnings primarily owed to semiconductors that generated a profit of 11.55 trillion won against sales of 20.78 trillion to deliver a surprisingly lucrative operating margin of 55.6 percent, a level unseen in the industry.

Mobile phone business improved following the release of S9 series, earning 3.77 trillion on sales of 28.45 trillion won. Display division struggled amidst overall industry glut, managing an operating profit of 410 billion won.

Consumer electronics business generated a profit of 280 billion on sales of 9.74 trillion won. U.S. car infotainment company Harman International it had acquired last year for $8 billion incurred a loss of 40 billion won on sales of 940 billion won.

On Thursday, shares of Samsung Electronics closed up 3.45 percent at 2,607,000 won.

The company said it would celebrate its robust performance with shareholders by giving out 17,700 won for each issue they own. The return ratio is 0.7 percent for common share and 0.9 percent for preferred stock.

The payment comes ahead of its ambitious 50-to-one stock split that would shave the most expensive Korean stock’s face value to 100 won from 5,000 won after they newly list on May 4 after three-day suspension.

Last year, the blue-chip company paid out 5.8 trillion won to shareholders after revising up its originally planned volume of 4.8 trillion won. Its net cash reserve reached 70.22 trillion won as of the end of March, up 8.4 percent from a year ago.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]