Samsung Q4 profit leaps 50%: firm

Samsung Electronics reported a 50.2 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday despite the humiliating Galaxy Note 7 recall that hammered the reputation of the world's largest smartphone maker.

In a statement, Samsung said it posted operating profits of 9.22 trillion won (US$7.9 billion) during the October to December period.

Earnings were "driven by the components businesses, mainly the memory business and the display panel segment", it said, with the stronger US dollar also boosting profits.

Revenues were largely unchanged at 53.3 trillion won for the three months, the South Korean tech giant said.

For the full year, it said in a statement, "Samsung achieved solid results despite the Note 7 discontinuation in the second half" -- the only reference to the debacle that saw the company withdraw its flagship device.

Samsung Electronics was forced to discontinue the smartphone in October, originally intended to compete with Apple's iPhone, after a chaotic recall that saw replacement devices also catching fire.

Earlier this week it blamed faulty batteries from two different suppliers for the incidents.

Operating profits for 2016 reached 29.2 trillion won, up 10.7 percent year-on-year, the firm said, even though revenues were almost flat at 201.9 trillion won, up 0.6 percent.

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