Samsung Biologics crowned with operating margin growth for 3 straight years

Samsung Biologics is the only company among South Korea’s top 30 listed firms in terms of market capitalization that has reported an increase in operating margin in the third quarter for three consecutive years, with its latest third-quarter margin reaching 37 percent, according to a recent data analysis.

In the analysis commissioned by Maeil Business Newspaper and carried out by FnGuide, Samsung Biologics was the only Korean listed firm that met the metric among 1,779 companies with available earnings results for the third quarter of this year.

Out of all the companies on the list, only 40 had an operating profit margin of over 30 percent.

Samsung Biologics, the fourth largest company in market cap, achieved an operating profit margin of 37.2 percent in the latest quarter with revenue of 873 billion won ($651 million) and operating profit of 324.7 billion won. The operating margin for the quarter has steadily increased from 20.6 percent in 2020 and 37.1 percent in 2021.

DB HiTek and Hanmi Semiconductor were also good performers with the corresponding figure that has steadily increased for three consecutive years. DB HiTek recorded 49 percent in the third quarter, following 27 percent in the third quarter of 2020 and 36 percent last year, while Hanmi Semiconductor posted 40 percent in the third quarter of this year after 31 percent in 2020 and 33 percent in 2021.

SD Biosensor, a Covid-19 test kit maker, topped the list in terms of operating margin with 53 percent, but the company’s earnings volatility is inevitable depending on the pandemic development.

Among Kosdaq-listed companies, ABL Bio had the highest operating margin at 65 percent. Back in January, the company signed a mega-buck $1.06 billion license deal with Sanofi for Parkinson‘s disease treatment ABL301. Thanks to this, ABL Bio’s third quarter revenue jumped 64 times on year to 38.4 billion won. Its operating profit amounted to 25 billion won, swinging from a loss of 11.4 billion won a year ago.

Shipping company HMM was another company that enjoyed a high operating margin of 50 percent.

In the third quarter, the company recorded 5.1 trillion won in sales and 2.6 trillion won in operating profit. The company’s operating margin, which stood at 16 percent a year ago, jumped to 56 percent this year amid a surge in global ocean freight rates.

According to the Korea Exchange, the average operating margin of the listed companies was 5.4 percent for the third quarter on a consolidated basis.