Samsung posted quarterly earnings that were at an eight-year low but in line with expectations
Samsung posted its worst quarterly results for almost eight years in the wake of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, but promised that it would rebound in the fourth quarter.
Earnings plummeted 98 per cent in comparison to the previous year and languished at their worst level since the final quarter of 2008.
Although this was in line with guidance it was markedly down on the 7.8 trillion won (£5.6bn) it estimated prior to withdrawal of its the flagship Note 7 on fears that handsets were spontaneously combusting.
Read more: Samsung will bounce back from its Galaxy Note 7 PR disaster
Operating profits were their lowest level in two years as the group revealed that it had generated 5.2 trillion won (£3.7bn).
Nevertheless, the South Korean giant said that it was looking forward to a positive fourth quarter and that it “expects earnings to improve driven by strong performance in the components business,” it said in a statement.
“The mobile business expects a recovery in its earnings to a similar level with that of the fourth quarter of 2015.” The division reported profit of 2.2 trillion won in the final quarter of last year and it expects to match it through bumping up sales of its Galaxy S7 phones along with selling more of its new lower tier models.
Read more: Samsung to take profit hit of £2.5bn from Galaxy Note 7 failure
Samsung also revealed overnight that it was investigating every aspect of its flawed Galaxy Note 7 phones in an attempt to ascertain why they had been catching fire.
The group had managed to secure a number of the flawed handsets and concluded that although 55 of a sample of 119 were due to a battery problem, 19 were under further investigation.
Samsung said that it was investigating other issues that included hardware, software and the manufacturing process.