HONG KONG — It may well take years to tabulate the full damage Samsung’s discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 will have on the company’s brand.

But on Thursday, the South Korean electronics giant offered a quick glimpse of just how costly its combustible phone has been.

The Galaxy Note 7 debacle virtually wiped out profits at its high-profile mobile communications division during the third quarter, Samsung said. The division posted an operating profit of $87.9 million. By contrast, a year ago the division posted a profit of about $2.1 billion.

In a statement, Samsung said it hoped that in the next quarter its mobile operating profits would return to last year’s levels, also around $2 billion. Previously, Samsung had estimated the cost of the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 after a number of the phones caught fire to be around $3 billion.