À̹ÌÁö È®´ë LG Group chairman Koo Kwang-mo, who celebrated his second year at the group¡¯s helm, is expected to keep focusing on reorganizing business portfolio to prepare for mid- to long-term growth.
Koo has been leading a groupwide reform by focusing on retaining talents and strengthening research capacity to lay the groundwork for long-term growth over the past two years. Sources from the business circles expect he would continue to stick to a selection and concentration strategy by investing in technologies such as artificial intelligence, robot and big data while maintaining competitiveness of the group¡¯s core businesses.
Since taking over the leadership position on June 29, 2018 after the death of his father and former chairman Koo Bon-moo, he boldly decided to sell off several non-core assets to shore up financial ammunition with cash and cashable assets reaching an estimated 16 trillion won ($13.3 billion) as of the end of the first quarter. The group sold Beijing Twin Tower for 1.37 trillion won, IT service unit LG CNS for 1 trillion won and in-house maintenance unit LG Serveone for 600 billion won. It also disposed of LG Electronics¡¯ water treatment subsidiary for 250 billion won, LG Chem¡¯s LCD business for 1.3 trillion won and LG Uplus¡¯ digital payment business for 300 billion won.
The proceeds are expected to be spent on further M&A deals. The group engaged in multiple mega deals after Koo¡¯s inauguration, including LG Electronics¡¯ takeover of Austria¡¯s auto lighting firm ZKW and industrial robot maker Robostar, LG Household & Healthcare¡¯s acquisition of American cosmetics firm New Avon and Physigogel¡¯s business rights in Asia and North America and LG Chem¡¯s purchase of U.S. auto sealant maker Uniseal.
Koo has been spearheading LG Group¡¯s digital transformation efforts while focusing on nurturing future growth engines such as electric car batteries, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and robots. At the same time, he has been aggressively bumping up R&D and investment in human resources by promoting more than 100 employees as executives in two reshuffles and giving systemic training for 100 senior executives.
By Kim Gyu-sik, Chun Gyung-woon and Choi Mira
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]