LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, who celebrates his fifth anniversary in office on Thursday, has been making remarkable strides around the world this year.

Over the past five years, Koo has redefined the group’s portfolio with a “focus and concentration” strategy, bringing LG Group closer to achieving annual sales of 200 trillion won ($153.65 billion) and tripling its market capitalization.

According to sources on Sunday, Koo accompanied President Yoon Suk Yeol on an economic mission to Vietnam last week and attended a roundtable with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi on Friday.

At the event, Koo reportedly emphasized the importance of the Vietnamese market, saying, “LG Group’s growth is based on trusted partnerships with many Vietnamese companies.”

Prior to his visit to Vietnam, Koo also attended the BIE General Assembly in Paris, France, and the Davos Forum in Switzerland in January.

Koo’s confident external endeavors stem from LG Group’s solid growth over the past five years. The market capitalization of LG Group has grown nearly threefold, from 88.1 trillion won (excluding preferred shares and LX Group) on Koo’s inauguration day on June 29, 2018, to 257.5 trillion won on June 12.

After taking office, Koo boldly streamlined businesses that he deemed lacking competitiveness.

In 2019, shortly after his inauguration, he restructured LG Display Co.’s OLED lighting business and LG Uplus Corp.’s electronic payment business. In 2020, LG Chemical Co.’s polarizer business was divested. The most significant decision that required immense courage was the withdrawal from LG Electronics’ mobile phone business.

With the flexibility gained from restructuring, Koo invested in new growth areas such as electric vehicle components, batteries, and artificial intelligence (AI).

As a result, LG Group, which had sales of 138 trillion won and an operating profit of 4.6 trillion won in 2019, grew to achieve sales of 190 trillion won and an operating profit of 8.22 trillion won last year.

Koo plans to invest about 54 trillion won over the next five years in AI, bio, and clean tech industries.

By Lee Sae-ha and Minu Kim

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