Samsung's Cheil sells fashion unit to focus on electronics

Industry news

Samsung's Cheil sells fashion unit to focus on electronics

Cheil Industries Inc, a unit of South Korea's biggest business conglomerate Samsung Group, said it would sell its fashion business to unlisted affiliate Samsung Everland in a strategic shift to focus on electronics materials. The 1.05 trillion won (US$ 968.6 million) asset transfer comes as Samsung Group seeks to tighten its grip on electronics components and materials and ensure easy access to the latest technology as it battles global rivals such as Apple Inc in the rapidly changing mobile industry.

Cheil Industries started as a textile firm in 1954 before expanding into the fashion business in the 1980s and later into electronics materials. Its fashion business generated only 30 percent of its total revenue last year, with the rest coming from electronics materials and chemicals operations. Cheil Industries makes electronics components such as flat-screen films and poly carbonate used in smartphones.