Samsung’s Jay Y. Lee heads to Europe for partner meetup, Busan Expo

Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Jay Y. Lee has embarked on a business trip to Europe as he seeks to tighten cooperation with Samsung’s key business partners and drum up support for Korea’s efforts to host the World Expo 2030.

The leader of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group left for London on Sunday where he is expected to check up on the group’s performance and market conditions for its Digital eXperience division (DX), which oversees its electronics business, in Europe.

Samsung, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, is the top player in Europe’s smartphone and TV markets.

This Wednesday, the Samsung chief, whose Korean name is Lee Jae-yong, is scheduled for a Korea-UK business forum as part of Korea’s delegation to the country to strengthen Korea’s and Samsung’s local business network.

He will fly to Paris on Thursday to support Korea’s bid to host World Expo 2030 in Busan, Korea’s largest port city.

Korea is competing with Saudi Arabia's Riyadh and Italy's Rome to host the international fair. The winner will be decided by a vote of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) member countries on Nov. 28.

Lee has been crisscrossing the globe as a special presidential envoy to lead the Korean government’s and business leaders’ promotional pitches for the World Expo. Earlier this month, he visited the Cook Islands in the South Pacific to solicit other governments’ support during the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) summit meeting.

FIRST OVERSEAS TRIP SINCE HIS LATEST COURT TRIAL

Lee’s latest European trip marks his first international trip since his court appearance last week over an accounting fraud case involving the 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates.

Last Friday, prosecutors sought a five-year prison term for Lee on charges of stock price rigging and accounting fraud connected to the merger in 2015 of Cheil Industries Inc. and Samsung C&T Corp. Prosecutors also requested 500 million won ($386,430) over the merger case in fine during the hearing at the Seoul Central District Court.

The merger, prosecutors said, helped Lee tighten his control over Samsung C&T, the de facto holding firm of Samsung Group, to the detriment of other shareholders’ interests.

Lee, however, said that the merger was part of the conglomerate’s broader plan to boost its affiliates’ competitiveness.

“As an entrepreneur, I have the responsibility to continue to create profits and jobs (for the country). Grant me an opportunity to focus all of my capabilities solely on moving forward,” he said at the court hearing.

Prosecutors indicted him over the case in September 2020. The court will hand down a ruling on Jan. 26.

As part of his global business activities, Lee plans to visit the Netherlands in mid-December as a member of Korea’s economic delegation.

He is expected to meet with chief executives of Samsung’s key partners, including chip equipment maker ASML Holding N.V and NXP Semiconductors N.V., an automotive chipmaker.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.