Samsung predicts better-than-expected quarterly profits

Analysts are expecting Samsung’s best-ever quarterly profit in the April-June period when the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus launch. Samsung scrapped its flagship smartphones past year after they overheated and caught fire, leaving billions of dollars in financial damages and hurting its reputation.

The scandal involves Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee and several top executives accused of bribery and embezzlement. The figure is higher than the average 9.4 trillion forecast from 18 analysts, according to Reuters. Revenue rose 0.4 percent to 50 trillion won ($44.1 billion).

From what appears from Samsung’s media invite that it is likely to launch the Galaxy C7 Pro in India on Friday.

However, Lee’s involvement in the corruption scandal is unlikely to have any long-term impact on Samsung’s brand, analysts says. An issue that caused Samsung’s own Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee to be arrested and he is now facing charges for bribing their former president Park Geun-hye. It led to the suspension of President Park Geun-hye for allegedly receiving bribes.

Lee is charged with donating tens of millions of US dollars to two nonprofit foundations controlled by Choi, who is at the center of the corruption scandal embroiling former President Park.

Lee’s lawyer flatly denied the charges.

Samsung’s share price has also been performing well, climbing steadily over the last few months despite all the drama the company has been facing at home.

Samsung, which last week unveiled its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8, was helped by strong sales of memory chips. This estimate is quite a rise from 6.68 trillion won (roughly $5.9 billion) overall operating profit Samsung reported in Q1 2016.

Samsung has been facing various challenges since previous year, including the suspended production of the Galaxy Note 7 phablet and the arrest of the firm’s de facto head Lee Jae-young in line with the corruption scandal that led to the ouster of South Korea’s president.

The global recall of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 actually hammered Samsung with a loss of about $17 billion.