Samsung Electronics Downbeat On Third Quarter Prospects As Profits Slide

[Ron Burgundy]

By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. on Thursday reported its worst quarterly profit in two years and flagged uncertain earnings prospects for its key handset business, fuelling worries about its ability to return to growth. The downbeat guidance, as well as Samsung's decision to keep its interim dividend unchanged from last year, put the shares of South Korea's biggest company by market value on track for their worst daily percentage decline in nearly eight months. Samsung expects July-September handset shipments to pick up by 10 percent from the previous quarter and said it planned to release a new premium smartphone employing a new design and material, underscoring efforts by the world's largest smartphone maker to regroup. With its flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone outsold by Apple Inc's iPhone 5S in May and its cheaper devices feeling the squeeze from Chinese rivals like Xiaomi, Samsung also vowed to revamp its mid-to-low-tier product lineup with more aggressive pricing and a focus on a smaller set of products.

View the full article