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06.20 (목)

LG Display names finance expert as new CEO, launches early retirement program

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South Korea’s LG Display Co. replaced its CEO with a financial expert and launched early retirement program for the second year as it grapples with snowballing losses in the face of heavy Chinese competition and slowed global demand.

LG Display on Monday announced vice chair and CEO Han Sang-beom who led the company for the last eight years was stepping down to make way for new leadership. The company immediately held an emergency board meeting on the same day to accept Han’s resignation and appointed Jung Ho-young, current chief operation officer and chief finance officer at LG Chem, as the new CEO.

Jung will formally assume the new title after the shareholders meeting in March next year.

Han will legally represent the panel maker until then but will not be involved in the management.

The sudden change of leadership change reflects the urgency in management after a year of snowballing losses. The display panel maker has been hit hard by the supply glut in the liquid crystal display (LCD) TV panel market due to fast expansion by Chinese competitors.

Growing uncertainties in the global economy due to prolonged trade disputes between the world’s two superpowers the United States and China have slowed panel demand worldwide.

The company logged an operating loss of 368.7 billion won ($312.6 million) for the second quarter ended June this year, almost tripled from the 132 billion won loss reported three months earlier due to the plunge in panel prices and demand. Its heavy investments to shift its focus to the production of more lucrative organic light-emitting diode panels also ate into its bottom line.

The company from Tuesday invited applicants for early retirement program. Factory workers employed for five years or more can apply for the program which would be throwing in 36 months of salaries as severance compensation. The move is timed with the company’s phase out from LCD business.

Jung joined LG Group in 1984 and served various management positions at LG affiliates, including LG Electronics, LG Chem, and LG Household & Health Care. He worked as chief financial officer of LG Display from 2008 to 2014.

An LG Group official said that the company accepted Han’s resignation to freshen up the atmosphere at the company under the new leadership and overcome the pending challenges.

The new leader would need to tackle various issues ranging from turning around the loss making business to dealing with Japan’s restriction against Korea on fluorine polyimide exports, which is used in smartphone displays.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
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