Indeed one of the key figures of the flagship brand — Samsung Electronics — is its chief executive, Oh-Hyun Kwon, who is navigating the smartphone giant through the aftermath of the exploding Galaxy Note 7 debacle.
Analysts said much of Samsung’s key businesses were consumer-oriented — from selling smartphones to providing other tech companies with memory chips and display panels. They said the developments in South Korea will unlikely affect the purchasing decisions of global customers.
One analyst pointed to the fact that despite the Note 7 fiasco, the Samsung brand was resilient. Profits jumped 50 percent on-year in the Oct-Dec 2016 quarter.
“The semiconductor businesses are doing very well and also the LCD business is coming up,” said Daniel Yoo, head of global strategy at Kiwoom Securities. He told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” the handset business was an area of concern, ahead of the launch of the new flagship Galaxy S8, expected in the first half of 2017.
Recently, Samsung saw its marketshare trimmed and was overtaken by Apple for the first time in eight quarters due to the Note 7’s failure.
Samsung Group shares performed mixed on Friday. Shares of Samsung Electronics closed down 0.4 percent at 1,893,000 Korean won; Samsung SDI was up 0.8 percent, Samsung Electro-Mechanics higher by 0.7 percent, while Samsung C&T dropped 2 percent and Samsung Engineering was off by 1.2 percent.
