Samsung Electronics on Jan. 28 announced financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2015. Samsung posted 53.32 trillion won in consolidated revenue and 6.14 trillion won in operating profit for the quarter.
Overall, the company reported full-year 2015 revenue of 200.65 trillion won and full-year 2015 operating profit of 26.41 trillion won.
Facing global economic headwinds, including a sharp fall in oil prices, the company’s fourth quarter earnings fell QoQ, as the components side of the business was impacted by weakened prices for DRAM chips and LCD panels due to overall softer demand in the IT market and PCs.
In terms of currency, due to the strength of the Korean Won compared to major currencies in the fourth quarter, the positive FX impact that significantly contributed to the component business earnings in the third quarter changed to a negative impact of approximately KRW 400 billion, which was generated mostly from the set business.
Expecting challenges in 2016 to maintain earnings due to a difficult business environment and slowing IT demand, the company will strive to improve performance in the second half, by capitalizing on strong seasonal demand for set business products and enhancing the product mix in components business.
The company will make efforts to secure profitability for each business unit while it will also focus on reinforcing mid- to long-term business competitiveness, including new business areas such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT). For IoT, the company plans to focus initially on Smart Home and Smart Health, leveraging the strength of our overall ecosystem.
For the memory business, the company plans to improve competitiveness of its products and solidify its technological leadership by expanding its leading-edge process. As for the System LSI business, the company plans to diversify its foundry customers and enhance the SoC (System-on-Chip) line-up.
For the Display Panel segment, the company plans to secure mid- to long-term growth momentum by leveraging its OLED technology for the development of new panel applications such as transparent, mirror, head-mounted and automotive displays, while strengthening its flexible display technologies.
For the mobile business, the company will focus on strengthening the competitiveness of its software, along with hardware, services and wearable products. For the consumer electronics business, the company plans to lead the Smart Home era with diverse IoT-enabled products.
Looking at the first quarter specifically, challenging business conditions will likely remain due to weak seasonal demand and a slowdown in the IT industry. Therefore, the components business will focus on expanding the proportion of value added products, while the set business will focus on major launches of its new products.
Regarding shareholder return, the company announced a 11.3 trillion won special buyback program and a three-year shareholder return policy last year. It completed the first phase of the buyback program on January 12, of which 2.23 million common shares and 1.24 million preferred shares worth 4.25 trillion won were repurchased and cancelled.
Capital expenditure (CAPEX) for 2015 totaled 25.5 trillion won, including 14.7 trillion won and 4.7 trillion won for semiconductors and displays, respectively. The 2016 CAPEX plan remains under review.