Image copyright AFP

South Korean tech giant Samsung says it has sold stakes it held in four other companies in order raise money "to focus on its core business".

The company has shares in four companies raising more than 1 trillion won ($888.9m; £681m).

The sales come as Samsung is recalling its flagship Galaxy Note 7 phone after reports of fires caused by faulty batteries.

Analysts say the recall could cost the company more than $1bn.

'Efficient management'

Samsung sold shares in US chipmaker Rambus and hard drive producer Seagate, Dutch semiconductor firm ASML and Japan's Sharp.

The firm sold off half of a 3% stake it held in ASML, and its entire stakes in the other three companies for "efficient management of assets," it said.

It had held a 4.2% stake in Seagate, 4.5% of Rambus, and 0.7% of Sharp.

China recall?

On Friday, US regulators ordered a formal recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. According to Samsung, the problem affects 2.5 million devices globally, including one million in the US.

Phones in China were thought by the firm to be safe as they are equipped with batteries by a different supplier. However, reports on Monday suggested that there had been two incidents of phones in China catching fire in the past few days.

Samsung has already recalled a small batch of phones in China that had been handed out prior to the official launch in the country for testing purposes. It is not clear whether the two phones affected were from that batch.