Samsung likely to report best profit this quarter

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is likely to turn in its best quarterly profit in three years and a record revenue, on rising memory chip prices and brisk sales of its new foldable smartphones, analysts’ estimates show.

Operating profit for the world’s biggest memory chip and smartphone maker likely jumped to 16.1 trillion won ($14 billion) in the quarter ended September, according to a Refinitiv SmartEstimate from 16 analysts, weighted toward those who are more consistently accurate.

That would be up 30 per cent from 12.35 trillion won a year earlier and the highest since the third quarter of 2018. Revenue likely rose 11 per cent to 74.6 trillion won, a record high.

An unprecedented global shortage in semiconductor chips amid the pandemic has underpinned Samsung’s results and shares, which soared 45 per cent last year and hit a record high at the start of 2021.