LG Uplus to grow EV charging JV to be among Korea’s top 3

LG Uplus Corp., South Korea’s third-largest mobile carrier, aims to develop its electric vehicle charging joint venture with Kakao Mobility Corp. into one of the country’s top three players in the sector to seek a future growth engine in the rapidly growing EV industry amid the saturating domestic telecommunication market.

“We plan to install slow chargers at apartments across the country first and expand the business into fast chargers,” said LG Uplus Chief Strategy Officer Kwon Yong-Hyun, unveiling the long-term goal, during an earnings call for the second quarter.

The unit of South Korea’s No. 4 conglomerate LG Group and the country’s top taxi-hailing app operating subsidiary of domestic mobile giant Kakao Corp. last month agreed to establish an EV charging JV with an investment of 25 billion won ($19 million) each.

LG Uplus is set to install chargers and work on marketing at the JV, which is under a merger review by the country’s antitrust body.

TO DOMINATE SOUTH KOREA’S IOT SECTOR

LG Uplus aims to become the dominant player in the local Internet of Things sector as the cooperation with Hyundai Motor Co. And Kia Corp., the country’s two largest automakers, already bolstered its IOT business, a senior executive said.

“IoT subscribers have significantly increased since we provided all models including the premium Genesis with wireless communication services after expanding our partnership with Hyundai earlier this year,” LG Uplus Chief Financial Officer Yeo Myung-Hee said.

The total number of IoT subscribers soared 39.2% to 7.1 million in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to the company.

Thanks to the healthy growth, LG Uplus said its operating profit rose 16% to 288 billion won on a consolidated basis in the April-June period from a year earlier with sales up 1.3% to 3.4 trillion won.

The carrier also agreed to provide a total infotainment service for the Highlander, Toyota Corp.’s seven-seater sport utility vehicle, raising its presence in the IoT sector, Yeo said.

“The increase in the IOT subscriber number is predicted to be extended into the infotainment market where we will raise customer touchpoints in the future through platforms and content solutions,” she said.

“Such a trend is expected to have a great impact on the market shares of mobile service subscribers among the top three carriers,” Yeo added, referring to itself and its two larger rivals – SK Telecom Co. and KT Corp.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at 2juhyun@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.