[Anchor]
Samsung Electronics has announced its third-quarter earnings. Both operating profit and revenue reached record highs, but the company's share price fell as the anticipated announcement on shareholder returns was postponed to next year.
Reporter An Huijae has the details.
[Reporter]
Samsung Electronics has finalized its record-high quarterly revenue and profit for the third quarter.
Revenue came in at 195.3 trillion won, with an operating profit of 107.4 trillion won.
This represents a 2.2-fold increase in revenue and an 8.8-fold surge in profit compared to the same period last year.
Notably, this marks the first time quarterly operating profit has crossed the 100 trillion won threshold.
The stellar performance was undoubtedly driven by the semiconductor sector.
The chip business alone generated an estimated 106 trillion won in operating profit.
Net profit reached 75.1 trillion won, marking a more than sixfold increase year-on-year.
However, Samsung Electronics stated that profitability for its Visual Display division declined due to the conclusion of major sporting events, while the Digital Appliances business saw earnings drop under the pressure of rising raw material and logistics costs.
Regarding shareholder returns, which drew the most attention, the company decided to allocate up to 110 trillion won this year and pay out a total of 30 trillion won in third-quarter cash dividends.
However, specific details on how to return up to 75 trillion won of the total 110 trillion won to shareholders will be announced at a board meeting next January.
Samsung Electronics shares, which climbed as high as 249,000 won this morning (October 29), trended downward immediately following the announcement, closing down 4.13% from the previous session at 232,000 won.
Analysts attribute the drop to investor disappointment over the lack of concrete plans, such as a treasury stock cancellation schedule.
SK Hynix maintained an upward trend until the market close, while the KOSPI index fell 1.24%, giving up the 6,000 mark.
(Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi)
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