South Korea: Samsung rides storm with massive Q4 profIt

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - Samsung Electronics is anticipating a 50 percent on-year leap in operating profit for the last quarter of 2016 -- demonstrating unexpected resilience in the face of recent crises.

A company statement Friday predicted an operating profit of 9.2 trillion won ($7.7 billion) between October and December, which would be the first time the South Korean tech giant has broken the 9 trillion won barrier since the third quarter of 2013.

A local survey of 17 brokerages had fuelled expectations of a more modest figure of 8.4 trillion won, according to Yonhap Infomax.

Samsung’s forecast was also 77 percent higher than the third quarter despite overall sluggish economic conditions highlighted by South Korea’s recent shipping slump and rising household debt.

The Q4 prediction is all the more surprising when factoring in the billions of dollars in global losses incurred by the mass recall and October cancelation of the faulty Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

Having negotiated that challenge, the conglomerate’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong was called in to Seoul’s parliament last month for a televised interrogation over Samsung’s alleged involvement in an ongoing influence-peddling scandal.

With claims of corruption surrounding officials from the highest levels of South Korean government and business, President Park Geun-hye was impeached by a parliamentary vote on December 9 amid widespread mass protests.

Still, any negative effects on Samsung’s public relations obviously did not hurt its operating profit.

Analysts attributed the success to robust sales of memory chips, flat-panel displays and other smartphone models.

The company’s outlook has been further brightened by the strength of the United States dollar against the Korean won.