Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest maker of liquid crystal display televisons, on Monday forecast record profits exceeding Won1,000bn ($1.06bn) from consumer electronics for this year, driven by booming sales of flat-panel TV sets.

The ambitious target, which is more than quadruple the division’s profit in 2005, comes after Samsung became the top-ranking flat-panel TV producer in Europe and North America last year with its popular Bordeaux LCD set. Samsung aims to sell 13.5m flat-panel TVs in 2007, up 80 per cent from last year. It said 2007 would be the first year when its sales of flat-panel TVs would exceed those of cathode ray tube models and projection TVs.