Samsung forecasts $5.44bn in quarterly operating profit

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has forecast a quarterly operating profit of about 5.9 trillion won ($5.44bn; £3.65bn) for the first three months of 2015, BBC News reported.

The numbers beat market expectations, but would mark a fall of more than 30% in profit from a year earlier.

The world's biggest maker of mobile phones and TVs said it expects sales of 47 trillion won for the period.

The company will publish full financial results later this month.

Samsung's mobile division, its biggest business, has been struggling to maintain its dominance against rivals such as Apple and Chinese smartphone-makers including Xiaomi.

Bryan Ma from consultancy IDC Asia Pacific told the BBC that the numbers were encouraging and fell in line with some of the firm's most recent reviews, which had been positive.

"It's not clear that they're out of the woods yet," he said, "but there are some encouraging signs."

"The thing to remember about Samsung is that it's not just a smartphone company ... so if they're not strong enough in that sector they can make up for it elsewhere."