Samsung appoints Kwon Oh-hyun as head of loss-making Samsung Display

Kwon Oh-hyun (64), CEO and vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, will directly manage Samsung Display as well.

Samsung Display held a general shareholders meeting and board of directors meeting on Friday, and elected Vice Chairman Kwon as new CEO. Kwon, head of Samsung Electronics’ device solutions (DS) division, is set to directly oversee semiconductor and display businesses, the two pillars of electronic parts.

President Park Dong-geun, who served as Samsung Display CEO from December 2013, has moved to Samsung Electronics’ DS division. His title has yet to be given.

Samsung Display posted about 2.19 trillion won (1.92 billion U.S. dollars) in operating profit last year. However, it saw operating profit shrink sharply from the fourth quarter last year due to deteriorating condition in the display market, and posted a deficit of 270 billion won (237 million dollars) in this year’s first quarter. Worse still, the landscape of the global display market is fast shifting, with BOE of China investing in the construction of production lines for 10.5-generation LCD, which is the world’s largest. As such, some analysts say Samsung Display, which only focused on small- and medium-sized OLEDs for smartphones, may start investment in large-size OLEDs for TVs in earnest under Vice Chairman Kwon’s direction.

Meanwhile, LG Display signed a memorandum of understanding with North Gyeongsang Province and Gumi City on investment in and administrative support for OLED business on the day. LG Display decided to make advance investment of 310 billion won (272 million dollars) in sixth-generation flexible OLED, and 140 billion won (123 million dollars) in fifth-generation OLED for lighting, respectively. Notably, the company’s investment in flexible OLED is set to be made on top of the 1.05 trillion won (920 million dollars) that was decided in July last year. The company plans to start mass production of both flexible OLEDs and lighting OLEDs in the first half of next year.

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