Jo Joo Wan Visits Indonesia and Vietnam in Succession to Target the 'Global South'

LG Electronics CEO Visits Southeast Asia After India
Emphasizes B2B Businesses such as HVAC... Investment in Emerging Markets

Jo Joo Wan, CEO and President of LG Electronics, is accelerating efforts to secure future growth opportunities by consecutively visiting the company’s branches in India and Southeast Asia. He plans to strengthen business-to-business (B2B) operations and other initiatives to target emerging markets, collectively known as the Global South.

According to industry sources on April 21, Jo Joo Wan led key executives on consecutive visits last week to LG Electronics’ local subsidiaries in Indonesia and Vietnam. This marks his return to the Global South just three months after his business trip to India earlier this year. The Global South, which LG Electronics is heavily investing in, is recognized as an emerging market with significant growth potential. This region includes India, Indonesia, as well as Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

LG Electronics CEO Jo Joo Wan visiting LG Electronics Indonesia branch. LinkedIn capture

At last month’s shareholders’ meeting, Jo Joo Wan stated, “Starting this year, we will add a regional focus to our existing growth strategies and accelerate growth in promising regions with high potential,” adding, “We will concentrate on identifying growth potential and business opportunities in emerging markets represented by the Global South.”

During his recent visits, Jo Joo Wan emphasized the importance of B2B businesses such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), commercial displays, and high-efficiency systems. In particular, he focused on the need for data-driven, customized solutions to accelerate B2B business, as well as the importance of maintaining long-term partnerships with B2B clients.

The strategy is that as major global companies gather in the Global South, which has an abundant labor force, opportunities for LG Electronics’ B2B businesses?such as HVAC and smart factories?will naturally increase.

With big tech companies like Google and Microsoft (MS) making large-scale investments in data centers, especially in Southeast Asia, opportunities for HVAC business in the Global South are rapidly materializing.

LG Electronics recently achieved results by forming a strategic partnership with MS and agreeing to supply chillers to MS’s new artificial intelligence (AI) data center. The company also outpaced Japan’s Daikin, the world’s No. 1 HVAC firm, to supply its high-efficiency commercial system air conditioner ‘Multi V i’ to a mega logistics center in Singapore.

Jo Joo Wan, CEO of LG Electronics, visited the Indonesian branch last week and took a commemorative photo with the employees. LinkedIn capture

LG Electronics is also stepping up efforts to target India, the representative of the Global South and now the world’s most populous country. In addition to existing facilities in Noida and Pune, the company is pushing ahead with the construction of its third plant in India, located in Sricity, Andhra Pradesh, as a comprehensive production base for home appliances. Construction is scheduled to begin early next month.

Given the high growth potential, LG Electronics’ subsidiaries in the Global South are also showing strong growth. According to LG Electronics’ audit report, the combined sales of five major subsidiaries in the Global South (India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Brazil), which disclose both sales and net profit, reached KRW 16.3363 trillion last year. This is an increase of nearly 17% compared to 2022. The combined net profit of these five subsidiaries last year was KRW 766.6 billion, up 36.6% from two years ago.