[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Engineering, South Korea’s largest builder of engineering projects, posted on July 28 an 82.6 percent fall in second-quarter operating profit, struggling to recover from last year’s slump even after clearing off massive losses led by reverses in the Middle East.

The plant engineering unit of Samsung Group narrowly avoided losses in the April-June period by posting 3.5 billion won (US$3.10 million) in operating profit and 2.3 billion won in net profit, up 44 percent on-year, the firm said in a statement. 


Samsung Engineering attributed the sluggish quarterly earnings report primarily to 50 billion won the firm set aside to meet losses arising from a tank building project for SMP, a joint venture between Samsung Fine Chemical and MEMC of the US.

Sales during the three months to June 30 rose 2 percent on-year to 1.88 trillion won.

Dented by delays on work in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other projects, the builder logged net loss of 1.30 trillion won and in 2015.

The company said it expected that its earnings will improve from the second half of this year as high-quality projects it has won from the end of 2015 will start to be reflected in its financial statement.

Samsung Engineering’s shares advanced 6.33 percent to close at 11,750 won, outperforming a 0.2 percent fall in the broader market.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)