Samsung’s Q2 are “not that good” according to the company’s CFO

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone maker, expects its second-quarter earnings to be “not that good,” Chief Financial Officer Lee Sang Hoon said. Lee’s comments were confirmed by the company after they were first reported by South Korean media. Samsung is expected to post operating profit of 8.4 trillion won ($8.2 billion) in the three months ending June, according to the average of 35 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Samsung’s earnings have slipped from a record 10.2 trillion won in the third quarter of 2013 as sales of its Galaxy devices are squeezed by Apple Inc. iPhones in the high-end market and inexpensive Chinese producers in the budget segment. The company is introducing new luxury televisions and investing in memory chips to reduce dependence on a telecommunications division that generates more than three-quarters of earnings. “Strengthening competitiveness of local players in emerging markets are hurting sales of Samsung’s lower-end smartphones,” Jin Sung Hae, an analyst at KTB Investment & Securities, said in a report today after cutting her profit estimate by 10 percent to 7.99 trillion won. “The main reason behind the lowered earnings estimate largely stemmed from weak smartphone sales.”