LG's 40-year-old heir cut the phone giant down and built a battery champion

On 20 May 2018 LG Group chairman Koo Bon-moo died of brain cancer, a year after the family had settled the succession: his adopted nephew and heir Koo Kwang-mo was named the group's fourth chairman the following month, at 40. The Korea Herald describes a handover with no grand ceremony or fanfare — unusually quiet for a chaebol, and quiet became the style. Koo had an unusual pedigree for a Korean heir: a computer science degree from Rochester Institute of Technology, Stanford's business school, and time at a Silicon Valley startup.

What followed was, in the Herald's words, 'the business of subtraction.' LG exited fuel cells, water treatment and electronic payment in 2019; killed its smartphone business in 2021 after years of losses, walking away from Korea's No. 2 phone maker; and closed its solar panel business in 2022, while scaling back LCD exposure. For a Korean conglomerate, where businesses are usually preserved for legacy or employment reasons, this willingness to abandon established operations was rare. The stated logic was two words: selection and concentration.

The capital moved into batteries. In December 2020 LG Chem spun off its battery unit as LG Energy Solution, launching with a goal of 30 trillion won of annual revenue by 2024, up from an estimated 13 trillion in 2020. In January 2022 the IPO raised 12.8 trillion won, South Korea's biggest-ever share offering; the stock jumped 65.8% on debut, made LGES the second most valuable firm on the Kospi after Samsung Electronics, and marked Asia's largest equity fundraising since Alibaba's 2019 Hong Kong listing. LGES held over 20% of the global EV battery market, supplying Tesla, GM and Volkswagen.

By the eighth anniversary of his chairmanship in 2026, the Herald's verdict was that the quiet strategy was paying off: LG's three electronics affiliates were on track for record revenue of 119.08 trillion won and record operating profit above 5 trillion won, with first-quarter 2026 profit four times the 2023 level. Koo's next act builds on the same bet: an 'ABC' strategy of AI, bio and clean tech, an AI research arm founded in 2020 whose Exaone model now runs across affiliates, and a planned 100 trillion won of investment in Korea through 2028.

LGES IPO raised ₩12.8tn — Korea's largest ever. By 2026 LG's three electronics affiliates were headed for record revenue of ₩119tn and ₩5tn operating profit.

The heir's mandate came free of legacy: at 40, with the founder's line settled behind him, Koo could kill businesses that older executives had defended for decades.

Batteries were already winning inside LG Chem; spinning the unit out let the market price the growth story instead of averaging it with commodity chemicals.

Exits were sequenced by cash needs rather than sentiment — payment services and fuel cells went first, the phone business last — so no single exit ever forced a funding crisis.

A deliberately low public profile kept partners and employees calm while the portfolio was being torn apart and rebuilt.

Succession is the cheapest moment to shrink. A new chairman with no legacy business to defend can kill a flagship like phones and redirect a group's capital in under three years.

LGES became the world's No. 2 EV battery maker, supplying Tesla, General Motors and Volkswagen. EV demand later cooled and trimmed margins, but the group doubled down: LG founded LG AI Research in 2020, launched the Exaone model in 2021, and now pitches a 'One LG' physical-AI ecosystem across robotics, batteries and components, backed by a planned 100 trillion won of investment in Korea through 2028. The Korea Herald's 2026 retrospective judged the strategy of focus and exits as beginning to pay off, while warning that building replacements for the shut businesses is the harder test ahead.