Samsung Electronics to spin off LCD unit April 1

Samsung Electronics announced in a general shareholders meeting Friday that it will spin off its LCD unit next month.

The LCD unit will be turned into the company "Samsung Display Ltd." with a capital of 750 billion won (665 million U.S. dollars) on April 1 and undergo a merger with Samsung Mobile Display.

The shareholders’ meeting also named Kwon Oh-hyun, vice chairman of device solutions, as director and reappointed Choi Ji-sung vice chairman and Yoon Joo-hwa president. The remuneration limit for an executive director was set at 30 billion won (27 million dollars).

The meeting took almost two hours because shareholders protested the comments of Samsung Electronics President Lee Jae-yong. He recently told reporters that he has no plan to float the company on the stock market.

Separately, Samsung Electro-Mechanics convened a board meeting shortly after its shareholders` meeting the same day and decided to take over Alphana Technology of Japan, the world’s No. 2 HDD motor producer.

kyu@donga.com