Samsung Engineering outlook bright on stock and performance front

Samsung Engineering Co. ended the year on a buoyant note with stock gains coupled with fat order book.

Shares of the Korean construction and engineering firm finished Wednesday, the last trading session of 2020, at 13,250 won ($12.19), 26 percent higher from three months ago. Retail investors were heavy buyers, net purchasing 59.8 billion won worth of the stock this month alone.

Investors have turned bullish on Samsung Engineering stock after the company successfully brought home big orders in the latter half of this year. The company won a $1.07 billion deal to build a methanol production plant in Malaysia last month, and a $3.65 billion contract to build refinery facilities in Mexico in October, which was the company’s biggest-ever single order since its inception.

Its order book stayed thin until the third quarter due to the economic fallout caused by Covid-19 but expanded since global oil demand started recovering later this year, said Baek Jae-seung, a Samsung Securities analyst.

Samsung Engineering specializes in building petrochemical plants whose demand depends heavily on global oil refinery market conditions.

Market analysts project the company’s operating income to rise 9 percent to 383.9 billion won and revenue 3 percent to 6.8 trillion won next year from this year’s estimated figures, according to local financial market data tracker FnGuide. They estimate the firm’s revenue for 2022 at 7.2 trillion won.

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