Seoul, Oct 28 (IANS): Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of memory chips, televisions and flat screens, said Friday that its third-quarter operating profit grew 13 percent compared with three months earlier.

Consolidated operating profit reached 4.25 trillion won ($3.85 billion) during the July-September period, up 13.35 percent from the previous quarter, according to a regulatory filing. From a year earlier, operating profit dwindled 12.57 percent in the third quarter.

The results were largely in line with the company's preliminary estimate of 4.2 trillion won announced earlier this month, but they were well above the market consensus of 3.3 to 3.5 trillion won, Xinhua reported.

Sales posted 41.27 trillion won in the three months ended Sep 30, up 4.65 percent from the previous quarter. The third-quarter revenue grew 2.6 percent from a year earlier.

Net profit stood at 3.44 trillion won in the third quarter, down 1.84 percent from three months earlier. From a year before, net profit was down a whopping 22.75 percent.

Strong sales of Samsung's Galaxy smartphones contributed mainly to the better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter. The telecommunications division that makes handsets and smartphones posted all-time high quarterly sales of 14.9 trillion won, up 37 percent from the previous year. Operating profit for the division also hit a record high of 2.52 trillion won.

"Despite the difficult business environment due to the economic slowdown in developed markets, Samsung achieved a solid performance and recovered its double-digit operating profit margin in the quarter, driven by strong sales of our smartphones," said Robert Yi, Samsung's vice president.

Samsung predicted seasonal demand for smartphones would pick up in the fourth quarter helped by year-end promotion, but it cautioned that demand growth slowing cannot be ruled out due to lingering global economic uncertainties.

The semiconductor division, including memory chips, registered an operating profit of 1.59 trillion in the third quarter on revenues of 9.48 trillion won, declining both on- quarter and on-year. Profitability in DRAM chips remained weak amid falling prices, but spot prices for NANA flash memory, which is a core component in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs, rebounded during the quarter.

The display panel business recorded an operating loss of 90 billion won on revenues of 7.08 trillion won, down 13 percent from a year earlier. Shipments of large-sized LCD panels edged up 1 percent on-quarter to 179 million units, but average sale prices of panels went down across the segments, including laptop, monitor and TV panels.