Samsung Elec's ex-M&A head to extend clout in Samsung Group

Ahn Joonghyun, who led Samsung Electronics Co.'s high-profile M&A deals for nearly nine years, was promoted to a president-level position to head the key division of Samsung Group's think tank last Saturday.

The ex-vice president of Samsung Electronics, who is also known as James Ahn, is now leading Samsung Economic Research Institute's division on future industry research, the group said.

Ahn will spearhead the parent group's efforts to find new growth engines and acquisition targets beyond its electronics unit, according to sources familiar with the matter.

His appointment for the new role came a few months after Samsung Group conducted its regular personnel reshuffles for C-suite executives last December, stoking speculation that the conglomerate would accelerate its push for sizeable M&A deals.

"Ahn was entrusted with full authority to carry out M&A negotiations," an investment banking source told Market Insight, the capital market news outlet of The Korea Economic Daily.

"He is one of the company's few core members who can speak to Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee on the phone in real-time." 

As Samsung Electronics' M&A head since late 2013, he led all the tech titan's major acquisitions and divestitures, including the $8 billion acquisition of Harman International, a US electronics systems maker for automobiles. 

He also drove Samsung Group to streamline its business portfolio by selling its chemical and defense businesses to Hanwha and Lotte groups between 2015 and 2016, in deals worth a combined 5 trillion won ($4 billion).

Back in 2004, he took charge of setting up S-LCD, the LCD joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Sony Corp.

With 130 trillion won ($105 billion) in cash reserves, Samsung Electronics is expected to return to the global M&A scene, breaking its silence since it purchased Harman in 2016.

At a conference call in July 2021, the company expressed its intention to acquire companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, 5G mobile networks and automotive chips, saying: "We will likely realize a meaningful M&A within three years."

At Samsung Economic Research, Ahn will likely work closely with Shin Won-Jeong, an ex-senior managing director at Samsung Securities Co. who moved to the group's think tank last year.

Ahn, 59, joined Samsung Electronics in 1986 as a software engineer and worked in research and development for 10 years. He majored in electrical engineering at Korea University and earned an MBA from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. 

AHN'S REPLACEMENT

At Samsung Electronics, he was replaced by Lim Byungil, a former South Korea head of UBS Securities. Lim has worked as one of three vice presidents within Samsung's M&A team since last year, together with Ahn.

In 1996, Lim received the highest score on the national examination required to become a senior government official. In 2002, the former finance ministry official moved to Lehman Brothers and then later to Credit Suisse.

HEADS OF SMALL-SIZE DEALS

Samsung Electronics has other M&A key people in its management support office, headed by Park Hak-gyu. In the back office, Vice President Kim Jae-Yoon is handling M&A strategies as well. 

Particularly, the M&A market is taking note of Yoon Joon-oh, vice president and strategy head of the support office.

Yoon is understood to lead the company's M&A deals in the areas of wireless technology, home appliance, digital video, mobile network and healthcare. In 2017, he oversaw the sale of Samsung's printer business to HP.

For the automotive systems business, Vice President Lee Seung-wook has been leading its acquisition strategy since late 2020.

In its device solutions division, Vice President Heo Seok is in charge of M&A planning.

Other key M&A specialists in Samsung Electronics include Mathieu Apotheker, head of the company's corporate development. Prior to joining Samsung, he worked as a consultant for Boston Consulting Group, IBM and Accenture, after graduating from Cambridge University in England.

Write to Jun-Ho Cha at chacha@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.