Samsung C&T books $2.15 billion potential losses on 2015 results

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung C&T Corp , which last year became the Samsung Group's de facto holding company, on Thursday said it set aside 2.6 trillion won ($2.15 billion) for exceptional losses for 2015 from projects including construction work on Australia's Roy Hill iron ore mine.

Samsung C&T is seen by analysts to be cleaning house ahead of its first full year after a contentious merger of two Samsung Group companies enabled Samsung Electronics vice chairman Jay Y. Lee, C&T's largest shareholder, to strengthen control of South Korea's largest conglomerate.

Shares in Samsung C&T were up 3.2 percent at 0211 GMT in a flat wider market (.KS11).

Samsung C&T, which has businesses in construction, trading, fashion and leisure and owns two biopharmaceutical subsidiaries, is in talks with Roy Hill about compensation for previous delays in construction on the $10-billion Roy Hill project, a C&T spokeswoman said.

Samsung C&T said it booked 850 billion won in estimated losses for the Roy Hill project, as well as 560 billion won in losses on oil projects due to a fall in oil prices.

C&T's construction business is likely to improve after booking the losses, said Jun Yong, analyst at Hyundai Securities. He said C&T investors also are hopeful of high valuations for the two biopharma subsidiaries that are considering initial public offerings.

(This story removes erroneous paragraph 4 reference to talks to extend construction period)

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Stephen Coates and Tony Munroe)