Samsung SDS Co., an IT service unit of Samsung Group, on Thursday said it swung to the black in the first quarter of 2021 on the back of robust cloud business and logistics platform projects.

The company reported net profit of 158.5 billion won ($141.7 million) in the January-March period, shifting from a loss of 30.3 billion won a year earlier.

Its operating profit jumped 26.8 percent on-year to 217.1 billion won, while sales rose 25.7 percent on-year to 3.06 trillion won in the first three months of 2021.

Samsung SDS said revenue from its IT service unit increased 6.4 percent on-year to 1.36 trillion won thanks to its cloud-based solution business.

Sales from logistics-related projects soared 47.2 percent on-year to 1.69 trillion won due to increased shipments of IT products, it added.

Meanwhile, the company said it plans to invest 1 trillion won to build a new high performance computing data center in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, by 2022 to boost its cloud business.

The company also said that it is actively seeking merger and acquisition deals to beef up its presence in the IT service sector. (Yonhap)