The London-based consultancy firm Brand Finance has now revealed that Samsung has managed to take the top valuation spot among brands originating from South Korea. That probably won’t come as any surprise to anybody who has been following the company’s economics over the past year. Over that stretch of time, Samsung has been battling it out with both Apple and Intel in terms of global sales and neither of those has proven to be a losing fight. Beyond that, the company has managed to, thus far, maintain its hold on the top mobile manufacturer spot in one of the world’s most important burgeoning marketplaces – India. Moreover, despite high-profile legal problems with some of the company’s leadership, it has managed to maintain a high-portion of the overall global mobile market share with new flagships in both the smartphone and phablet categories.
As to the Brand Finance valuation itself, the firm values Samsung’s brand at around $51.4 billion USD. That is reportedly around a 12-percent increase from the last valuation – placing the previous valuation at around $45.87 billion. Meanwhile, Brand Finance says the new figures come as a direct response to an almost 50-percent increase in Q4 2016 operating profits but also stem from predictions about the future of Samsung’s business in the chipset sector. Samsung has been increasingly focused on that portion of its business, following a sharp decline in its mobile operations after the now infamous Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. That’s also one part of the business that Brand Finance predicts will be growing at an accelerated rate thanks to high pricing, increased demand, currency exchange rates, and, of course, this latest brand valuation.
Interestingly enough, rivals for the title included at least one secondary company also owned by Samsung – namely Samsung Fire and Marine, which took the second spot overall. The insurance brand rose in value by 42-percent from the last valuation. Behind that, the automotive group Hyundai grew in valuation by $8.8 billion – which is a 4-percent increase. That companies fortunes have been a veritable roller coaster over the past several years but Samsung’s valuation is expected to continue its upward trend for the foreseeable future, according to Brand Finance.