LG Electronics mulls Indian IPO, to invest in HVAC, webOS content: CEO

LG Electronics Inc., a leading South Korean home appliance maker, is considering an initial public offering of its Indian business to help achieve a target of 100 trillion won ($75 billion) in LG’s annual electronics revenue by 2030.

Chief Executive Cho Joo-wan, who also goes by his English name William Cho, said an Indian market debut is one of several options the company is weighing to revitalize its consumer electronics business.

“It [an Indian IPO] is one of many options we can consider,” Cho told Bloomberg Television in a recent interview in Seoul.

“I understand there’s increased interest among global investors,” he said, referring to a potential IPO in India. “As of now, nothing is confirmed.”

The CEO said LG has been “watching carefully what’s going on in the Indian market in terms of IPOs and following similar industry and similar IPO cases.”

But the company hasn’t yet reviewed possible valuations for its Indian unit, he said.

He was responding to recent market and media speculation that LG may tap the booming Indian stock market to expand its business in the South Asian nation and achieve its ambitious global electronics revenue goal.

LG’s investor relations chief Park Won-jae said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call with analysts last month that an Indian IPO could be an option to enhance LG’s corporate value, although nothing has yet been decided on the matter.

SALES TARGET BY 2030

Cho, who took the top post in 2021 after more than three decades with the flagship of LG Group, Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate, has set a goal of growing the annual revenue of the electronics business to 100 trillion won by 2030.

LG, which competes head-on with bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co., aims to achieve the goal by earning more from its enterprise clients.

The CEO said LG plans to nurture new businesses that can each bring in more than 1 trillion won in annual revenue such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).

Last month, LG set up an HVAC research center in Frankfurt to increase sales in Europe, one of the world's biggest heating system markets.

LG is also expanding its subscription service for home appliances. In Korea, consumers can rent products such as washing machines and laptops by paying a monthly fee.

Cho said LG will invest 1 trillion won by 2027 to grow its free ad-supported streaming and content businesses based on its web-based operating system (webOS).

HYUNDAI MOTOR’S IPO PLAN IN INDIA

In India, LG seeks to sustain rapid growth. In the first half of this year, sales of LG’s India unit rose 14% from a year earlier to a record 2.87 trillion won, while net profit climbed 27% to 198.2 billion won.

LG’s possible Indian IPO comes after Korean top automaker Hyundai Motor Co. last month unveiled its plan to raise between $3 billion and $3.5 billion in an Indian IPO.

Hyundai Motor India in June filed for an IPO plan with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. If successful, it would mark the Korean automaker’s first overseas IPO.

Write to Chae-Yeon Kim at why29@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.