November 22, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of Korea’s largest family-run conglomerate, met Chinese business leaders during his trip to Asia’s No. 1 economy, corporate sources said on May 4.

According to the sources, Lee met top decision makers of major Chinese IT companies, including BYD Auto, Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi, after arriving in China earlier this week.

The only son of Samsung’s chief Lee Kun-hee is in China with key executives in an apparent bid to forge deeper ties with local partners. Kim Ki-nam, the head of Samsung’s device solution division, which oversees its crucial chip business, and Lee Dong-hoon, who leads Samsung Display, are accompanying the vice chairman.

Earlier this year, Lee visited Europe and Canada on a trip that symbolized his full-fledged return to corporate affairs after being imprisoned for roughly a year. He was released in February after an appellate court handed him a suspended sentence in a bribery and corruption scandal that led to the ousting of former President Park Geun-hye in 2017.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)