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Samsung’s Third Quarter Looks Strong Despite Slowing Smartphone Sales
October 01, 2018 
Samsung Electronics is expected to report abbreviated preliminary 3Q results this week and consensus settled at 62.2t won ($55.63b US) in sales and 17.2t won ($15.38b US), up 5.1% and 18.5% Y/Y respectively.  While sales will not set a record, if the operating profit consensus is met or exceeded, it will beat the record set in 1Q.  The general tone for the quarter is that smartphone profit will be down due to higher marketing expenses, not to mention sales, while semiconductors will be strong, despite weak NAND Flash pricing as the company has seem demand improve, while DRAM remained stable.  Samsung’s OLED business is expected to be up over last quarter as iPhone display production has been ramping and consumer products are expected to be flat. In other Samsung news, the SEC, Chairmanwas formally indicted on charges of trying to derail a union that had been formed at Samsung’s customer service division along with 27 other employees.  Lee Sang-hoon, CFO of the company when the incident occurred in 2013 became Chairman last March in an effort to broaden board control of the company after the trial of Samsung’s Vice-Chairman Jay Lee, the grandson of the founder of the company.  Jay Lee received a suspended sentence for corruption involving payments to South Korea’s former President.  Lee Sang-hoon is not related to the founding family.