Samsung Electronics is heading for its first annual earnings drop since 2011 after it revealed its July-September profit would be the lowest in more than three years. Samsung said in a regulatory on Tuesday that operating profit for the third quarter likely fell 59.7 percent to 4.1 trillion won ($3.8 billion). The company did not disclose net income or divisional earnings in its quarterly earnings preview.

The company is facing declines in the mobile business due to intensified smartphone competition, which also had an adverse effect on the performance of the OLED and S.LSI businesses, and weak seasonal demand for the CE business, including TVs.

On the other hand, Samsung's earnings for the Memory business improved on-quarter led by continued strong seasonal demand momentum, including PCs and servers, price stabilization under tight market supply and demand conditions, and cost reduction thanks to improved process migration.

This week, Samsung announced a 15.6 trillion won ($14.7 billion) investment plan to build a new semiconductor fabrication plant in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek. It is expected to begin operations during the second half of 2017.