Q3 sales 1.49 trillion won, operating profit 640.1 billion won — above analyst forecasts

Annual sales target raised to 5.47 trillion won; 1.4 trillion won in Q4 would seal the goal

Court recognizes 9 key processes as security work; union postpones second general strike

Samsung Biologics' Plant 4. [Samsung Biologics]
Samsung Biologics' Plant 4. [Samsung Biologics]

Samsung Biologics posted third-quarter results that beat market expectations, even as the company had been facing a string of target-price cuts from brokerages weighed down by share dilution from a large-scale rights offering and the threat of a union strike. On the back of strong top-line growth, the company raised its full-year sales growth guidance to 20 percent — the upper end of the range it had set at the start of the year.

Samsung Biologics disclosed preliminary third-quarter earnings Wednesday showing consolidated sales of 1.49 trillion won ($1.12 billion) and operating profit of 640.1 billion won. Sales rose 18.5 percent year on year, while operating profit grew 1.0 percent.

The operating profit margin held at a high 43.0 percent, though it slipped 7.4 percentage points from 50.4 percent a year earlier and 1.4 percentage points from 44.4 percent the previous quarter. Net profit for the period came in at 391.1 billion won, down 21.2 percent year on year.

The results surpassed estimates that brokerages had recently put forward — including those from firms that had trimmed their target prices to around 2 million won per share. IBK Investment Securities had forecast third-quarter sales of 1.36 trillion won and operating profit of 609.2 billion won, implying a 3.8 percent year-on-year decline in operating profit. Hyundai Motor Securities had similarly projected sales of 1.36 trillion won and operating profit of 612.6 billion won. The actual operating profit of 640.1 billion won instead came in 1.0 percent above the year-earlier figure.

Cumulative sales through the first three quarters reached 4.07 trillion won, with cumulative operating profit at 1.81 trillion won. Samsung Biologics crossed the 4 trillion won mark in cumulative sales within just three quarters.

Buoyed by the strong performance, the company also disclosed Wednesday that it was raising its full-year sales guidance from 5.32 trillion won to 5.47 trillion won, an increase of 148.4 billion won, or 2.8 percent. The revised figure locks in 20 percent growth compared with the prior year — the top of the 15–20 percent range the company had projected at the start of the year. With more than 4 trillion won already secured through three quarters, Samsung Biologics needs around 1.4 trillion won in fourth-quarter sales to hit the target, a level below its third-quarter sales of 1.49 trillion won and therefore considered achievable.

A court ruling also eased some of the production-disruption concerns that, alongside the burden of the roughly 3 trillion won rights offering — later fixed at 2.67 trillion won after the initial pricing — had been weighing on the share price.

The First Civil Division of the Seoul High Court's Incheon bench ruled Friday in favor of the company's appeal against an injunction, recognizing nine core production processes — from cell culture through filling — as "security work to prevent the deterioration or spoilage of raw materials and products" under Article 38, Paragraph 2 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. The ruling means those processes must continue to operate normally even during a strike, to prevent product degradation.

The court ordered the union to pay an indirect enforcement penalty of 20 million won per violation should it obstruct normal operations. Following the ruling, the union announced it was postponing the second general strike it had scheduled for Monday.

Samsung Biologics continues to pursue orders across its contract manufacturing (CMO) and contract development (CDO) businesses. Since its founding, the company has accumulated 117 CMO contracts and 184 CDO contracts, with total cumulative orders reaching $22 billion.

On the portfolio expansion front, Samsung Biologics secured an 87.88 percent tender in its offer for PolyPeptide Group, a global peptide contract development and manufacturing organization, clearing the minimum acceptance threshold of 66.7 percent. The company plans to complete the transaction by paying within 10 business days of receiving regulatory approvals from authorities in Europe, India, Australia and Brazil.

Samsung Biologics is also continuing to expand its global footprint. In August, it opened a European sales office in the Netherlands, completing a commercial network spanning the United States, Europe, Japan and the Asia-Pacific region — the three major global biopharmaceutical markets. The company said it plans to use this network to sharpen its order-winning competitiveness and build a decisive edge through broader global reach.

Samsung Biologics also received an A rating in MSCI's 2026 ESG assessment, one notch higher than the previous year. Having improved its rating every year since a B rating in 2023, the company said it intends to continue advancing its sustainability management as a leader in ESG practices within the industry.


silverpaper@heraldcorp.com