LG vows W100tr investment in Korea with R&D focus

LG Group's headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul (Herald DB)

LG Group unveiled a plan Wednesday to invest 100 trillion won ($74.3 billion) in South Korea by 2028 as it seeks to secure technological competitiveness and expand new growth engines.

The announcement was made during the regular shareholders meeting of its holding company LG Corp., held at the Seoul headquarters earlier in the day.

The company said the planned investment accounts for 65 percent of LG’s overall global investment by 2028, which reflects its commitment to driving innovation and fostering growth on its home turf.

About 55 percent of this investment will be injected into research and development to bolster Korea as a key manufacturing base for innovation in core materials and smart factories, the company explained.

Although it did not immediately offer a breakdown of the investment by each affiliate firm, the group said the mid-to-long-term investment plan would center on advancing future technologies, including artificial intelligence, bio, clean tech, batteries, auto parts and next-generation displays.

“This year, we would like to focus more on differentiated customer value and strengthening the fundamental competitiveness of the business,” LG Chair Koo Kwang-mo said in a statement read by LG Group Vice Chair Kwon Bong-seok during the meeting. “We’ll closely monitor changes in the industries and strengthen the fundamental competitiveness of the entire business to achieve solid results in any business environment.”

“We'll secure the key competitiveness required by customers and the market in the early stages and make them our main businesses. We'll also focus on the AI, bio and clean tech sectors as our future growth engines and enhance them as one of the pillars of our future business portfolio."

Last year, LG Corp. posted 1.6 trillion won in operating profit and 7.4 trillion won in sales.

At this year’s annual meeting, all five agenda items, including the reappointment of Koo as an executive director and the reduction of directors' compensation, were approved as planned.

Following the approval of the financial statements, LG also decided to pay out cash dividends of 3,100 won per share of common stock and 3,150 won per share of preferred stock. With the approval of the amendment to the Articles of Incorporation, the future dividend amount was first confirmed and the base date for dividends was set.

LG livestreamed the meeting online and conducted electronic voting for shareholders who could not physically attend. The LG chair could not physically join the meeting, but the group's key executives, including Chief Financial Officer Ha Beom-jong and Chief Strategy and Investment Officer Hong Bum-shik attended the annual gathering.

By Jie Ye-eun(yeeun@heraldcorp.com)