Samsung likely to invest 50 tln won in 2015

Samsung Group, South Korea's top family-run conglomerate, is expected to spend 50 trillion won ($46.3 billion) for facility and R&D investment this year, a company official said, a similar amount from last year, following a reshuffle with its chairman, Lee Kun-hee, still sick in bed.

Samsung is estimated to have invested between 49 trillion and 50 trillion won in 2014, according to market analysts, moderately increasing the expenditure every year from 42 trillion won in 2011.

"It seems to be an amount similar to that of last year," said a Samsung official.

Samsung does not disclose its combined annual capital expenditures; it only releases the figures by its subsidiaries.

Lee Sang-hoon, the head of Samsung's management division, had said at the beginning of last year that the group would spend "around that much" in response to reporters' questions asking if the amount was 50 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics Co., the crown jewel of Samsung Group, will also likely invest an amount equivalent to what it spent last year, the official said.

Samsung Electronics' investment accounts for 80 percent of the group's total capital expenditures.

The tech firm said that 24 trillion won will be spent on three flagship divisions -- memory chip, display and mobile -- at the second-quarter earnings conference call.

Analysts predict Samsung Electronics probably spent 15 trillion won for research and development in 2014, slightly up from 14.7 trillion won in 2013.

Lee Jay-yong, the son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee, is due to meet with newly-appointed executives early next week during a four-day workshop.

Eight months into the hospitalization of the elder Lee following a heart attack in May, the 47-year-old scion has remained extremely low-key, amid increasing public interest over his next move in the succession of his father's $12.7 billion fortune. (Yonhap)