Seoul, Oct 23 (IANS): Samsung Biologics Co on Wednesday said its third-quarter net profit increased 10 per cent from a year earlier, driven by record sales.

Net profit for the July-September period came to 264.5 billion won ($191.3 million), compared with 240.4 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing, Yonhap news agency reported.

Its operating income rose 6.3 per cent on-year to 338.6 billion won and sales jumped 14.8 per cent to a record high of 1.18 trillion won for the third quarter.

The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 251.3 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Samsung Biologics attributed its strong performance to new contract development and manufacturing organisation deals with global biopharmaceutical firms.

So far this year, the Korean company has secured nine deals worth a combined 4.36 trillion won with global big pharma, including the latest $1.24 billion deal with an Asia-based company.

Samsung Biologics said it is raising the guidance on the yearly growth of its revenue to 15-20 per cent for this year from 10-15 per cent on the ramp-up of the operation of its fourth manufacturing plant and favourable currency exchange rates.

In the second quarter, announced in July, the company’s consolidated revenue reached 1.16 trillion won, while operating profit stood at 434.5 billion won. On a standalone basis, the company achieved a revenue of 810.2 billion won, while operating profit came to 329.2 billion won during the same period.

According to the company, the results were driven by the full utilisation of Plants 1 through 3 and the ramp-up of Plant 4 operations.

Its Plant 5, expected to be operational by April 2025, will enable the company to provide additional capacity to deliver timely client services.