Samsung Electronics logs record-high profit on memory chips

Samsung Electronics Co reported another record high in quarterly earnings today as its semiconductor division posted its highest profit ever.

The company also announced a monstrous capital investment plan to increase chip production and higher shareholder dividends as the world’s largest chipmaker basks in an unprecedented boom in the memory chip industry that helped it overcome a crisis in its leadership.

The South Korean company’s July-September net income surged 150 per cent to 11 trillion won (USD 9.8 billion), compared with 4.4 trillion won a year earlier.

The result beats analysts’ consensus of 10.9 trillion won, according to financial data provider FactSet.

Sales rose 30 percent to 62 trillion won (USD 55.1 billion) while operating profit nearly tripled from the previous year to 14.5 trillion won (USD 12.9 billion), in line with its preview.

Samsung, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, has continued its record—breaking earnings streak thanks to a global boom in memory chips, even as its de facto chief was sentenced to five years in prison on a conviction for bribery.

To respond to a surge in demand for memory chips that power data centers and mobile devices, Samsung is spending 46.2 trillion won (USD 41.1 billion) in capital expenditure this year, including 29.5 trillion won to increase output of chips. That is nearly twice as large as Samsung’s last year’s capital spending of 25.5 trillion won.

Samsung is also earmarking 9.6 trillion won (USD 8.6 billion) each year from 2018 to 2020 for shareholder returns, nearly double its dividends in 2017.