April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Despite concerns over the strong Korean won Samsung Electronics is thought to have done fairly well in the fourth quarter thanks to high demand for premium memory chips.

The tech company said on Jan. 9 that it will likely post a record operating profit of 15.1 trillion won (US$14.10 billion) in the fourth quarter, up 63.77 percent from a year earlier.

It also estimated its quarterly sales will stand at 66 trillion won, up from 53.33 trillion won in the same period last year.

Overall, the Korean tech giant predicted its 2017 sales will come in at 239.6 trillion won with the operating profit standing at 53.6 trillion won.

The so-called super cycle in the semiconductor market, which has continued throughout last year, is thought to have helped Samsung to reap more than 10 trillion won in operating profit in the chip business in the October-December period, according to market analysts. The estimated annual operating profit of Samsung’s chip division, at 35 trillion won, accounts for two-thirds of the entire operating income of the tech giant.

The firm’s fourth-quarter operating profit estimate, which missed the previous market consensus of around 16 trillion won, disappointed some market analysts.

“The fourth quarter performance, which is much lower than the previous market consensus, falls short of being called as ‘record high,’” said Song Myung-sub, an analyst at HI Investment & securities, adding the strong Korean currency against the US dollar may have negatively affected the firm’s profits.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)