Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| From right, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won toast during a New Year meeting of business leaders at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters in central Seoul in this photo taken on Jan. 2, 2020. Korea Times file |
By Yi Whan-woo
The leaders of the three of the country's four largest conglomerates had their first get-together recently to congratulate SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on officially beginning his term as the head of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the country's major business lobby group.
Industry sources said Sunday that Chey met Chung Eui-sun of Hyundai Motor Group and Koo Kwang-mo of LG Group at a Chinese restaurant in Seoul, March 31, a week after the former's inauguration.
Alongside Samsung, Hyundai, SK, LG make up the country's big four conglomerates.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairmen and the group's chief Lee Jae-yong was not present as he is currently serving a jail sentence for corruption.
The remaining three were joined by Park Yong-mann, a retired Doosan Group chairman who led the KCCI from August 2013 before Chey.
Doosan Group is ranked 15th on the conglomerate list.
The March 31 meeting was hosted by Chung.
"The chairmen of Hyundai, SK and LG thanked Park for serving as the KCCI chairmen for almost eight years," an industry source said. "The meeting was held in an extremely amicable atmosphere."
Park accordingly asked Chey to bring together the business community amid the coronavirus-hit economy.
Another source said the chairmen of Samsung, Hyundai, SK, LG had met frequently and discussed up-to-date business issues.
"The March 31 meeting should be understood as an 'extension' from such a get together," it noted.
Meanwhile, the sources said Chey and Koo had not talked about a multi-billion legal dispute between their affiliates ― SK Innovation and LG Chem ― over battery businesses in the United States.
The two cross-town rivals dramatically reached an agreement, Sunday, to settle the row that began in 2019.
