LS Cable & System vies to become No. 1 in Asia

By Kim Tae-gyu

HANOI ― LS Cable & System Asia strives to become the continent’s leading cable manufacturer through achieving 1 trillion won sales by 2021, its CEO Myung Roe-hyun told a press conference here last Thursday.

LS Cable & System Asia was established in May 2015 as a holding company of two Vietnamese affiliates of Korea’s LS Cable & System ― LS Vina and LSCV ― to be listed at the Korean bourse next month.

“The two Vietnamese units combined to chalk up revenues of 490 billion won last year to become the No. 1 player in Vietnam. We look to double the figure to 1 trillion won by 2021,” Myung said.

“In consideration of the fast growth of the cable markets in Vietnam, we don’t think that the goal is overly ambitious.”

Because of the fast economic growth of Vietnam, the demands for power and telecom cables in the southeastern Asian nation have jumped at a double-digit pace per annum for the past few years and the trend is expected to continue.

Myung projected that LS would keep assuming a lion’s share in the competition with a few homegrown cable producers here, which he said lag behind about 10 years in technical edge compared to the business bellwether LS.

“Our Vietnamese peers cannot make top-end products yet while we stay ahead of the curve thanks to research capacity and bargaining power in procuring the raw materials,” the 55-year-old said.

“On a more positive note, we can export our products to the nearby countries of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia where the economies are expanding as fast as that of Vietnam.”

Myung said that the favorable situation would help LS Asia achieve positive results in the up-and-coming initial public offerings (IPO), which are slated for Sept. 22.

“While having one-on-one meetings with institutional investors, we stress three points. The Vietnamese economy grows really fast at more than 6 percent per year and we are the foremost player in its far faster-growing cable market,” said the LS lifer who joined the firm in 1987.

“Investors are reluctant to channel their money to Vietnamese firms due to a lack of confidence in corporate governance and transparency. And here comes our third selling point ― LS Asia is one of the most transparent companies as it adopted an international accounting rule and the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.”

Myung said that LS hopes to share its Vietnamese subsidiaries’ strong growth with investors at the Seoul bourse. He added that the outfit might also seek to be listed in the Vietnamese bourse sometime although it has no immediate plan.

LS first advanced into Vietnam in 1996, four years after Korea and Vietnam set up formal diplomatic relations in 1992 by putting aside old grudges ― Korea joined forces with the United States in the Vietnam War (1965-75).

The company struggled much in the early years because of startup glitches but began to make money beginning in the new millennium. Now it is regarded as one of the most successful foreign-invested corporations here.