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Samsung Electronics expects 2013 Q4 profits to fall six per cent year-on-year.
The smartphone specialist reckons it will report an operating profit of 8.3 trillion Won (£4.8 billion) for the October to December period last year.
It expects sales to hit approximately 59 trillion Won (£33 billion).
Analysts say the profit fall was partially due to Samsung splashing out on an employee bonus to commemorate Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s ‘New Management’ strategy.
Reuters reports this was estimated between 300 billion Won and 700 billion Won, but could have been as much as one trillion Won (or an average of $4,000 for each of the firm’s 240,000 employees).
"We are not against paying bonuses to workers but at least the shareholders should get as much," said Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group. "They should really celebrate the event with a big bonus, a bigger dividend, which may happen."
But CLSA analyst Matt Evans added: "In theory this [bonus] has nothing to do with Samsung’s enormous profit… and will not be repeated, although there is no transparency on this issue and so no guarantees."
