South Korea's LG Electronics Inc 066570.KS estimated on Friday its first-quarter operating profit rose 82 percent to its highest in almost eight years, handily beating market expectations on healthy sales of appliances and televisions.
It is the group's best quarterly profit in nearly four years.
Although Samsung was left reeling by the Galaxy Note 7's exploding battery fiasco previous year, the company's mobile division contributed around 2 trillion won ($1.76 billion), thanks to strong sales of its Galaxy S7 series.
Results in the first quarter seem likely to mirror those in the last three months of 2016, when Samsung similarly reported a sharp increase in profits and flat sales thanks to good business at its memory chip unit. That could help it stage a comeback in the wake of a string of controversies. The S8 was its first major smartphone launch since the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.
Prosecutors believe the 48-year-old billionaire and his aides used Samsung corporate funds to bribe former President Park Geun-hye and her close confidante in exchange for supporting a smooth leadership transition at Samsung.
The third-generation leader of South Korea's top conglomerate was mostly silent at his first court appearance in what has been called the "trial of the century", as his lawyers laboured to portray him as an innocent bystander in a graft scandal. Lee has previously denied the charges, saying that while Samsung did give money to the foundations, he didn't know Choi controlled them nor did he expect anything in return.
Escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea: What's going on?
Lately, the United States has stated on many occasions that all possible options to deal with North Korea are under consideration. In his annual New Year's address, Kim said North Korea's preparations for an ICBM launch had "reached the final stage".
South Korean prosecutors laid out their case against Samsung Electronics Co.
If it proves to be true, this confident prediction by Samsung will see the company trump both its results for the same period a year ago, as well as their troubled holiday quarter.
Sales of OLED display panels for mobile devices will also remain strong, keeping Samsung's bottom line solid, they said.
A woman walks by an advertisement of the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphone in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 7, 2017.
Samsung has insisted the payments to Choi were charitable contributions it was obliged to make under pressure from officials, and not bribes.
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