Samsung Vietnam reports 14% growth in Q3 profit

South Korean tech giant Samsung’s four subsidiaries in Vietnam reported profits of KRW1.68 trillion ($1.29 billion) in the third quarter of this year, up 14.15% year-on-year.

The four companies, namely Samsung HCMC CE Complex (SEHC) in Ho Chi Minh City, Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV), Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV), and Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thai Nguyen (SEVT), earned profits of KRW5.06 trillion ($3.88 billion) in the first three quarters of the year, up 24.13%, according to the group’s latest financial statement.

The units reported total revenues of KRW25.05 trillion ($19.2 billion) in Q3 and KRW71.71 trillion in the nine-month period, up 8.92% and 23.23% year-on-year, respectively.

Of the four, SEVT in the northern province of Thai Nguyen was the best performer in the first nine months of the year with a profit of KRW2.54 trillion ($19.4 billion) on a revenue of KRW29.44 trillion, up 45% and 26.86%, respectively.

In Q3/2022, its profit and revenue reached KRW601.05 billion and KRW8.89 trillion, down 6.5% and 2.32%, respectively.

SEV, located in the northern province of Bac Ninh, reported its nine-month profit at KRW1.44 trillion ($1.1 billion), up 8.71% year-on-year. Its Q3 performance featured a profit of KRW513.1 billion, up 14.4%.

SDV, also in Bac Ninh province, saw its January-September profit drop 12.53% year-on-year to KRW690.12 billion ($526.9 million). In Q3, its profits jumped 36.28% to KRW502.43 billion.

SEHC in the southern economic hub of HCMC posted a profit of KRW389.3 billion ($388.2 million) in the nine months, up 85.52%, and KRW61.99 billion ($47.32 million) in Q3, nearly five times higher year-on-year.

Samsung Group will add more investments into Vietnam, its global phone manufacturing hub, said Samsung Vietnam CEO Choi Joo Ho in a talk with The Investor last month.

This year, Samsung will keep disbursing in the country its pledged investment, including the commitment of around $1.2 billion for the Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vietnam factory in Thai Nguyen province. By the end of 2021, Samsung's accumulated investment in Vietnam was $18.2 billion, and the figure by the end of 2022 is expected to exceed $21.5 billion.

Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong is slated to pay a working visit to Vietnam later this year to seek new investment opportunities, according to South Korean industry sources. Plans for him to visit Samsung Electronics' Vietnam R&D center in Hanoi at the end of this year are being discussed. The construction of the $220-million R&D center started in March 2020.

Samsung is among the top 10 foreign-invested tax payers in Vietnam, according to the General Department of Taxation.

At present, about 60% of Samsung smartphones are sourced from Vietnam, where the tech giant is the largest foreign investor.