At Next Month's Shareholders' Meeting, Vice Chairman Michel to Be Newly Appointed as Inside Director
"Environmental Engineering Expert" with Experience in Agriculture, Water Resources, and Forestry
Expectations for Low-Carbon Product Development and Affiliate Synergy
Sampyo Group has newly appointed an "environmental engineering expert" as an inside director and is establishing a "three-vice chairman" management system. This move is seen as a strategy to improve the group's overall structure by promoting eco-friendly product lines as premium offerings, especially as the growth momentum of its core cement business has weakened due to a sluggish construction market.
On May 15, Sampyo Cement announced that it will convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on June 24 to discuss agenda items including the appointment of Michel Foucher-Costes, a French national, as an inside director and vice chairman. Since Michel Foucher-Costes was appointed vice chairman of Sampyo Group in March and also named an inside director of the holding company Sampyo Industrial, the agenda item is expected to pass without significant opposition. With this, the three vice chairmen of Sampyo Group will be Jung Dae-hyun (former Sampyo Cement CEO), Moon Jong-bak (former Hyundai Oilbank CEO), and Michel Foucher-Costes. This is the first time Sampyo Group will operate under a three-vice chairman system.
Vice Chairman Foucher-Costes is an environmental engineering expert who majored in engineering at the prestigious French institution Ecole Polytechnique and conducted research in agriculture, water resources, and forestry at a national institute. Since 1998, he has served as CEO at global cement companies such as Lafarge France and Lafarge Africa, and from January 2009 to February 2016, he was CEO of Lafarge Halla Cement for seven years. He is considered the right person to lead Sampyo Group's eco-friendly business, based on his deep expertise in the cement sector and his strong understanding of the Korean market built over many years.
This appointment is in line with Sampyo Group's strategy to expand into new business areas. Recently, low-carbon, eco-friendly product lines have emerged as new high-value sources of revenue in the cement industry. This is due to the strengthening of environmental regulations worldwide, which has increased demand for eco-friendly materials among construction companies and public institutions. In June last year, Sampyo Group became the first in the industry to officially launch the eco-friendly special cement brand "Bluement" and filed for a trademark, signaling its response to global changes. With this management restructuring, expectations are rising that Sampyo Group's expansion into eco-friendly businesses will accelerate.
A Sampyo Group representative stated, "Reducing the proportion of OPC (Type 1 Portland Cement) and expanding the eco-friendly product lineup is a global trend, not just a domestic one. Vice Chairman Foucher-Costes, drawing on his extensive experience operating cement companies in Europe, will play a key role in enhancing Sampyo's technological capabilities and product quality by introducing eco-friendly technologies currently used in Europe to the domestic market."
Synergy effects among affiliates are also expected to be strengthened, as Vice Chairman Foucher-Costes will, for the first time, serve simultaneously as an inside director of both Sampyo Cement and Sampyo Industrial. Sampyo Cement and Sampyo Industrial are responsible for the group's cement and ready-mixed concrete divisions, respectively. This change is expected to lead to expanded collaboration between the two affiliates, such as supply chain integration and joint research and development, aimed at reducing costs.
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