Samsung Elec CEO Kwon announces resignation as profits rise

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Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday its CEO and Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun plans to step down from his management position, deepening concerns over a leadership vacuum at the tech giant after group scion Jay Y. Lee was jailed for bribery.

The surprise resignation of Samsung’s chip and display head came at a time when he was expected to take a bigger role, following Lee’s arrest in February and the departures of other key executives in the wake of the bribery scandal.

The move came on the same day the South Korean smartphone maker forecast a record third-quarter operating profit on the back of the memory chip business, which Kwon was instrumental in turning into a world leader.

“The timing is nonsensical. Samsung tipped record earnings, it’s going to be better in the fourth-quarter, and all that’s been driven by Kwon’s components business,” said Park Ju-gun, head of research firm CEO Score.

Kwon Oh-Hyun, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co. /Reuters Photo

Kwon, 64, is seen as Samsung Group's No. 2., and as well as being chairman of the board and a board director, he heads the components business, which includes memory chips and the display business.

“We are fortunately making record earnings right now, but this is the fruit of past decisions and investments; we are not able to even get close to finding new growth engines by reading future trends right now,” he added.

The world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and TVs is set to smash its annual profit record this year, thanks partly to soaring demand for memory chips. Semiconductors were Samsung’s top earner in the three months through June, making a record 8 trillion won (7.20 billion US dollars).

The global chip industry is undergoing a major shift, with Japan’s Toshiba Corporation partnering with home rival SK Hynix, and other firms consolidating in search of new growth areas like artificial intelligence and automobiles.

Shares in Samsung, worth about 310 billion US dollars, fell 1.5 percent on Friday after hitting an all-time high earlier in the day.

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Source(s): AP ,Reuters