Samsung Electronics says Q3 net profit slumps 52%

[SEOUL] Samsung Electronics, the world's largest smartphone and memory chip maker, saw net profits slump by more than half in the third quarter, it said on Thursday, amid a continued downturn in the global chip market.

Net profits in the three months to June were 6.29 trillion won (S$7.35 billion), it said in a statement - down 52 per cent year-on-year.

"Earnings from the Memory Business slumped significantly year-on-year as memory chip prices continued its downward trend," it said in a statement.

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as "chaebols" that dominate business in the world's 11th-largest economy.

But in recent months it has been battered by falling memory chip prices as global supply increases.

Samsung is also battling challenges from the US-China trade war and touch export restrictions imposed by Tokyo on key supplies amid a dispute with Seoul over wartime forced labour.

Last week a retrial began for its vice-chairman Lee Jae Yong over a sprawling corruption scandal that could see him return to prison.

AFP