Seoul, October 31: South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics achieved a net profit in the third quarter of 11.1 trillion won ($9.89 billion), a 245 per cent increase from a year earlier, boosted by the strong returns from its chip business, the company announced on Tuesday.

Its operating profit in the July-September period reached 14.53 trillion won, representing a 279.4 per cent increase, the company said in a statement.

Both the operating profit and the sales revenue of the electronics giant are in line with its forecasts published on October 13.

The semiconductor business was again its brightest sector in the third quarter, with a record operating profit of 9.96 trillion won, which is almost three times as much as a year ago due to rising seasonal demand and the price increase of its products.

The company also reported that the IT and Mobile Communications division, which includes smartphones, posted an operating profit of 3.29 trillion won.

This is 3,000 per cent more compared to the dire figure in last year's third quarter, when the company found itself in a full fiasco caused by its Galaxy Note 7, whose production was eventually suspended due to repeated cases of battery defects which caused the device to overheat and combust or explode.

Even so, and despite the excellent reception of its new Galaxy Note 8, the figure is 19 per cent lower than that of the previous quarter due to the unfavourable demand for its mid- and low-end models in the last three months.

The company also announced that, given its continued record yields, it will increase the annual dividend to be distributed this year by 20 per cent from the current volume to approximately 4.8 trillion won.

That amount will double to 9.6 trillion won in 2018, 2019 and 2020, it added(IANS)