이 기사는 2021년 07월 13일 07시54분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics announced a positive earnings surprise in the latest quarter, raising expectations for special dividend payout with the tech giant remaining committed to shareholder returns.

The company last week reported preliminary operating profit of 12.5 trillion won ($10.9 billion) in the April-to-June quarter, beating market estimates and up 53.4% from a year earlier. Its first-half revenue and operating profit rose 18.6% and 50% year-on-year, respectively, to 128.4 trillion won and 21.9 trillion won.

The full-year consensus estimates for Samsung Electronics’ revenue and operating profits in 2021 are 272.1 trillion won and 51.8 trillion won, which represent a 19% and 14.4% year-on-year increase respectively. Analysts expect the company to see stronger earnings in the second half on the back of increased production capacity for memory chips and rising chip prices.

The robust earnings will likely lead to a rise in the company’s free cash flow, calculated as net cash flow minus capital expenditure.

Samsung Electronics earlier this year revealed a plan to return 50% of its free cash flow to shareholders for three years from 2021 to 2023. The company also increased its regular dividend payout in 2021 to 9.8 trillion won, up about 2% compared to the annual average over the preceding three years.

“Increased business uncertainty limited our capacity to return cash to shareholders early for a period from 2018 to 2020,” Choi Yoon-ho, financial head of Samsung Electronics, said in January. “Going forward, we will be more transparent with our annual free cash flow and use part of them to return cash to shareholders early.”

Samsung Electronics is expected to generate net cash flow of 65 trillion won and spend about 40 trillion won in capital expenditure this year, according to financial research firm FnGuide. This translates into an estimated free cash flow of 25 trillion won. Depending on capital expenditure outflows, the company’s free cash flow is estimated to reach up to 31 trillion won.

This means that, apart from 9.8 trillion won earmarked for the regular dividend payout, 2.7 trillion won to 5.7 trillion won could be available for an additional dividend distribution in 2021 based on the company's commitment to paying an annual dividend equivalent to 50% of its free cash flow.

If the cash in excess is distributed in the form of a special dividend, shareholders in Samsung Electronics may receive a dividend per share of between 385 won and 849 won in addition to a regular dividend of 1,444 won.

Samsung Electronics had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of 128 trillion won at the end of March, higher than the industry average. (Reporting by Seul-gi Kim)