Jay Y. Lee heads to Middle East, Malaysia for next Samsung takeoff

Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Jay Y. Lee has embarked on a business trip to the Middle East in his first overseas trip since a South Korean court acquitted him of wrongdoing charges that shackled his leadership for years.

The leader of Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group on Tuesday left for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates where he is expected to check up on Samsung’s performance and market conditions as well as to seek new business growth opportunities, industry sources said.

During his stay in the Middle Eastern countries, he is expected to meet with business leaders to discuss building 6G telecommunications networks and advanced information technology systems there.

In 2022, he flew to the UAE as his first trip after officially taking the helm of Samsung Electronics. He visited the nuclear power plant construction site of the Barakah project, undertaken by a Korean consortium that includes Samsung C&T Corp.

Last October, he made a trip to Saudi Arabia where several Korean companies are involved in a national project to build Neom, a smart city to be built in a desert area in the kingdom's northern Tabuk Province.

MALAYSIA AND THEN EUROPE

Lee’s latest business trip to the Middle East comes amid industry expectations that the Samsung chief, whose Korean name is Lee Jae-yong, will aggressively seek merger and acquisition targets and crisscross the globe to meet political and business leaders to strengthen Samsung’s competitiveness.

Following his stay in the Middle East, he is slated to visit Malaysia, one of Samsung’s production and sales hubs for the Southeast Asian market.

Samsung SDI Co. is building a cylindrical battery production plant in Malaysia with a 1.7 trillion won ($1.3 billion) investment by 2025.

“The Middle East and Southeast Asia are Samsung’s new growth markets as the company also aims to become a leader in the artificial intelligence and robot businesses,” said an industry official.

After Malaysia, he is expected to travel to Europe, visiting Germany and Spain to meet Samsung’s key business partners.

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

During his stay in Europe, he is also expected to visit the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 to be held in Barcelona on Feb. 26-29, sources said.

He last toured an MWC event in 2013.

CHALLENGES IN THE US MARKET

Analysts said one of the biggest challenges facing Lee comes from the US market as he steps up efforts to take Samsung to the next level.

Using his human network, the Samsung chairman has helped the company win several big deals, including an 8 trillion won contract in 2020 to build telecommunications equipment for Verizon Communications Inc. Last year, Samsung also clinched an autonomous driving chip deal with Tesla Inc. after he met with Elon Musk.

Industry officials said he is now being asked to deal with US politicians as Samsung’s planned construction of a $18 billion chip foundry plant in Taylor, Texas has hit a snag.

The plant, which originally was set to begin operations later this year, has been postponed until early next year amid the growing uncertainty surrounding the US government’s policy on tax incentives aimed at encouraging foreign firms to build facilities in the US.

“The chairman needs to step in for a conclusive decision regarding Samsung’s US investments. If Samsung has little to gain from building another US chip plant, it may want to cut spending there,” said an industry official.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang, Chae-Yeon Kim and Eui-Myung Park at hjs@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.