By Kim Yoo-chul
Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Electronics president and chief operating officer (COO), is moving to put the firm’s next growth businesses on a stronger footing.
``Lee has helped Samsung expand its stake in AMOLED and LED businesses, the company’s growth engines,’’ said an industry source, Wednesday.
``Samsung won China’s approval to establish an LCD plant, providing a gateway to penetrate into a market that is sure to be the world’s largest,’’ the source said, adding that Lee, the only son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee, played a role in that pivotal industry.
However, Samsung neither officially acknowledged Lee’s feat nor made any fanfare about it.
The world’s top LCD maker Samsung held a much-anticipated groundbreaking ceremony for a new facility in southern China. Samsung is planning to apply its 7.5-generation panel technology there with an investment of $2.4 billion.
China is considered a key market for consumer electronics with many global firms seeking to assert a presence there.
Beijing’s approval came with some dramatic elements.
Samsung was late into the LCD fray in China. Its plan to spend $2.4 billion on 7.5-generation LCD technology for a factory was not enough to beat LG Display.
``Chances were low for Samsung to gain approval. But strategic meetings between the COO and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping to present Samsung’s plans to help the regional economies were quite beneficial,’’ said a source.
Samsung Suzhou LCD (SSL) is a joint venture established last month by Samsung Electronics, Suzhou Industrial Park and TCL, one of China’s leading TV makers.
``Amid the flattening LCD demand in developed markets, China is the market that Samsung, and for that matter, any firm, cannot afford to lose,’’ said Lee Jeong, an analyst at Eugene Investment.
“He may be starting to beat the learning curve.” The COO is widely expected to succeed Lee Kun-hee as the leader of Korea’s largest conglomerate.
Samsung Electronics runs a joint AM-OLED venture with Samsung SDI and recently increased its stake in SDI to be more involved in the solar cell business that is tapped to be a future growth engine.
``Samsung’s AM-OLED business needs to make a breakthrough, which Lee is fully prepared to do thanks to his expertise in the firm’s collaboration with Sony,’’ said another source said.
Samsung Mobile Display (SMD), their in-house joint venture, started production two months ahead of schedule amid explosive growth for high-end display panels.
A watchdog group that monitors corporate governance observed that Jae-yong is moving up the corporate ladder and the pace is picking up on the basis of positive results.
It remains to be seen what role Jae-yong will play in one of the biggest issues facing the conglomerate ― discord with its top client Apple.
Recently Samsung and Apple have traded lawsuits over patents.