Stefan Mileschin

Samsung had earnings which were stronger than a Sardinian cheese after posting a solid first quarter profit boosted by its memory chip business.

While the first quarter was miserable for Samsung as its boss Jay Y. Lee was swept up in a political corruption scandal, the world’s top maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions still managed to book a profit that supports expectations for record earnings in 2017.

First quarter operating profit for Asia’s most valuable company by market capitalization was $8.75 billion, matching Samsung’s earlier guidance. Revenue rose two percent.

Samsung Electronics shares were up 2.6 percent at a record high in a flat wider market.

“Looking ahead to the second quarter, the company expects to achieve growth on the back of continued robust memory performance together with improved earnings from the mobile business,” following the global rollout of the new Galaxy S8 smartphone, Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung’s chip business remained the top earner, thanks to price gains for both DRAM and NAND memory chips.

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