Seoul-listed
Samsung was hurt by a hefty provision linked to an oil spill five years ago and
lighter than expected revenue to miss forecasts for the period.
It
logged a profit of KRW 73bn ($67m) in the final three months of 2012, 59% down
on the KRW 176.5bn put on the board at this stage in 2011.
Analysts
tracking the shipbuilding powerhouse had been hoping for a profit of KRW 199bn
for the quarter.
"As the company put aside 100 billion
won ($92m) worth of provisions related to the oil leakage accident (in
2007), it ate away at net income," the shipbuilder said in a statement,
according to Dow Jones.
Analysts note SHI logged sales of KRW 3.54
trillion in the quarter, up over 7% year-on-year but short of the KRW 3.65
trillion forecast.
Its operating profit margin did top bets at
7.5%, beating the 6.8% forecast and the 3.2%
reported by rival Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering earlier this week.
Samsung
closed 2012 with a profit of KRW 796.4bn, down 6.4% on 12 months earlier.
