[Edaily Reporter Kim Hyung-il ] Yuanta Securities Korea maintained its “Buy” investment rating and target price of 73,000 won for #SamsungE&A. This is because third-quarter operating profit is expected to meet market expectations, and the company is estimated to have already exceeded its annual order target. The firm also forecasts that large-scale orders will continue in the fourth quarter, including fertilizer and gas plants in the Middle East and a methanol project in Mexico.

On the 16th, Kim Do-yeop, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea, estimated that SamsungE&A’s consolidated revenue for the third quarter of this year would reach 2.2674 trillion won, an 8.1% increase year-over-year, while operating profit would rise 43% to 252.5 billion won. He projected an operating profit margin of 9%. He projected that both revenue and operating profit would be in line with the market consensus of 2.7215 trillion won and 247.1 billion won, respectively.

No unusual factors were anticipated regarding costs or selling, general, and administrative expenses. Since foreign currency sales account for less than half of total sales and transactions in different currencies are hedged using forward contracts, the impact of exchange rates was deemed to be limited. Accordingly, the firm forecast that the annual guidance of 10 trillion won in revenue and 800 billion won in operating profit would also be achievable.

It was estimated that order intake had already exceeded the annual target. In September, SamsungE&A secured an order for the SAN-7 fertilizer plant in Saudi Arabia worth approximately $3.5 billion (about 4.7 trillion won). Consequently, cumulative order intake for the first three quarters is expected to have exceeded the annual order guidance of 12 trillion won.

Orders from group affiliates are also expected to contribute to additional earnings. SamsungE&A raised its second-quarter guidance for orders from group affiliates from 3 trillion won to 7 trillion won. Yuanta Securities Korea projected that the remaining 4 trillion won of this amount would be reflected over the third and fourth quarters.

In the fourth quarter, additional orders worth approximately $6 billion to $7 billion are expected. Key candidates include the Mexinol methanol project in Mexico, the Khafji gas project in Saudi Arabia, and the urea fertilizer project in Qatar. The estimated project sizes are $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion for Mexinol, $2.0 billion for the Khafji gas project, and $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion for the Qatar urea fertilizer project.

The company is also securing candidates for medium- to long-term contracts. The Abadi liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Indonesia and the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) project in Louisiana, U.S.—for which SamsungE&A is currently conducting the front-end engineering design (FEED)—are expected to secure orders in the first half of 2027 if they complete the FEED phase between late this year and early next year and transition to the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) phase. The contract value expected for SamsungE&A is approximately $3.5 billion for the Abadi LNG project and approximately $2.5 billion for the Louisiana SAF project.

SamsungE&A is pursuing a FEED contract for the Ursus (URSUS) project, a small-to-medium-sized LNG project in Mexico, after completing the preliminary basic design (Pre-FEED). If the FEED contract is secured in the second half of the year, the EPC contract is projected to be awarded between the second half of 2027 and the first half of 2028. The upward trend in orders and revenue in the high-tech industry sector, driven by this expansion in work from affiliated companies, is expected to continue for approximately the next two years.