[News Now] Lee Jae-yong celebrates 2nd anniversary of his inauguration amid Samsung crisis theory...Do you have a strategy for reform?

■ Host: Kim Sun-young Anchor
■ Starring: Jeong Chul-jin, Economic Critic

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN NewsNOW] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Recently, Samsung Electronics recorded a new 52-week low due to poor semiconductor performance and foreign investors' selling spree, continuing the "crisis theory." In the midst of this, Chairman Lee Jae-yong celebrated his second anniversary in office. Let's talk with Chung Chul-jin, an economic critic. Welcome. I think the 2nd anniversary went by very quietly.

[Jung Chuljin]
That's right. This time of year is a series of very meaningful days for Samsung Electronics, I think we can look at it like this. The 25th is the 4th anniversary of Chairman Lee Kun-hee. It's the 4th anniversary of memorial service. If you look at Samsung Electronics' stock price now, everything will be explained. Some predicted that Lee Jae-yong-style restructuring, personnel reform, or some kind of message would come out around this time, that is, on the 27th, 28th, or November 1st. I don't think so. Because it's not Chairman Lee Jae-yong's style, and I don't think there will be any message from all over the world, or at a time when we're drawing attention like this, and I carefully predict that there will be a very powerful personnel reshuffle and reorganization through such personnel appointments at the end of the year.

[Anchor]
Chairman Lee Jae-yong put up New Samsung right after he was promoted to chairman, but there is no keyword for innovation that matches the title of New Samsung yet, isn't there?

[Jung Chuljin]
That's right. I think it's right to say that there's no visible achievement. At this point, Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be unfair. You may have seen the news on the 28th, but it is an appeal trial related to the merger of former Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, and the first trial was acquitted. So to attend it. So with judicial risk, how many years have you been doing this already? It's been dragging for more than five years, so he's also caught up, although he may be able to shake off such unfair feelings.

[Anchor]
There was actually a period of absence of leadership.

[Jung Chuljin] There was
. That's right. But the world doesn't understand or accept it like that. What have you done, especially during the 2nd anniversary. Stock prices or new growth potential, growth engines, or anything clear, so as you said, there are questions about Lee Jae-yong's leadership, question marks.

[Anchor]
At the end of the year, there were talks that the scope of the change would be huge.

[Jung Chuljin] It's
right. And there is a possibility that almost even the head level will be replaced, so if you look at that time, you can see how strong it will be.

[Anchor]
There is no need for words. You'll know when you see the greeting.

[Jung Chuljin]
The message doesn't come out.

[Anchor]
You met with Chairman Chung Eui-sun on the 2nd anniversary of Chairman Lee Jae-yong's inauguration, and you didn't just meet for friendship, but what is the meaning of the move?

[Jung Chuljin]
Not only did they meet at Yongin Racing last weekend, but Akio, chairman of Toyota Group, was here, and four Hankook Tire Chairman Cho Hyun-beom met. Then Hyundai Motor, Toyota, Hankook Tire, and Samsung Electronics. There was a combination that could almost be a future car. I don't know what they talked about in one place, but if you look at the future mobility, Samsung actually gave up not to do cars either. Apple also gave up because they wouldn't use Apple cars.

But whether it's Samsung Electronics or Apple, they didn't give up their car. Because in the future, we don't use the expression "car" or "car." Hyundai Motors, for example, is no longer called Motors. I use the word mobility. So maybe Apple and Samsung Electronics both have electricity and electrical devices in their future cars. Now semiconductors are running, you can see it like this. So Chairman Chung Eui-sun and Toyota. Toyota and Hyundai Motor are hydrogen cars and are in line with each other.

Now we're going into the world of electric cars, but larger sizes, such as large container trucks, can only be hydrogen cars. You can think of this combination of sticking together in such a line and putting electric devices on the car, and their meeting is also, in a broad sense, the anti-Tesla camp. That's the way it is, but there aren't any obvious ones yet.

[Anchor]
Originally, he was a business rival, but the picture we met on the 2nd anniversary is a cooperative relationship, can we see it like this?

[Jung Chuljin]
The two of them are very close personally. As we've seen, Hyundai Motor must also have electric devices without Samsung Electronics. From Samsung Electronics' point of view, the existing Hyundai Motor is needed to go to the new Motors, and there is a secondary battery between them. There are Samsung SDI and of course LG Energy Solution, but the future mobility we think of in the future is the past. I think I'll go with something different from an internal combustion engine car.

[Anchor]
I think you can understand it with this picture that you are drawing a future that can create synergy. First of all, you told me that Samsung Electronics' stock price is telling me everything, but it went up a little today.

[Jung Chuljin]
However, the biggest key to Samsung Electronics' stock price right now is the net selling trend of foreigners. It has been net selling for 33 consecutive trading days. It's a series. I've sold it before, but this is the first record to come out. The amount sold by foreigners for 33 trading days is almost 13 trillion won. Who got all this 13 trillion won? The institution is hardly on this board. Individuals have received it all, and the stock price has fallen from nearly 80,000 won to 50,000 won, 57,000 won, and 58,000 won, so it varies greatly depending on the individual, and there may be some parts that are wet, but at least 10-15% and many people lose by selling more than 20%. When will the net selling stop?

[Anchor]
When is the bottom? This is it.

[Jung Chuljin]
Rather than the floor, the day becomes momentum anyway. However, the stock price has rebounded by about 3% today, but the force buying it now is not foreigners. I'm not a foreigner. Of course, you have to check when the final tally of investors comes out after the market is over, but what you are giving the market price now is that individuals and institutions are raising it. So if foreigners sell today and say they are net sellers for 34 consecutive trading days, today's stock price rebound seems to be difficult to give any meaning.

[Anchor]
I think there are people who think it's all over the place, but that's not it?

[Jung Chuljin]
Yes, as I always tell you, in terms of supply and demand, even if foreigners can't return to net buying, they've sold 13 trillion won for a week, five consecutive trading days. You have to buy more than 3 trillion won to think that the edge is at the bottom. In terms of the second material, whether it's HBM3 8th or 12th tier, the bottom is stamping the contract with Nvidia, that's the bottom. Without that, I don't know, there's still a PBR 1x story to discuss the bottom of the stock price, but I think supply and demand, materials, this is much ahead.

[Anchor]
One of the clues to Samsung's showing this is that the foldable phone Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition was announced seven hours later than the time it had been declared. Isn't that a bit unusual?

[Jung Chuljin]
It's unusual. From Samsung's perspective. In particular, can this happen to Samsung Electronics? First, the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition is thick, open horizontally, as those who used the folder phone know. But since it comes out in a very thin version, the people who used it were very popular over there. So the reservation in advance came out like a flood, but when I went there after it was released, it didn't come into the store. So, it was delayed for about six or seven hours, and the volume is currently far short, so various speculations are coming out, but the company doesn't explain this.

[Anchor]
I heard that there was a disagreement within the department.

[Jung Chuljin]
There was a disagreement. However, the worst view now is that the defect has been found, and this is not a problem of defect, but the release has been delayed due to differences in the company's coordination relationship and coordination between departments. I said I would get it right soon, but this is another cross-sectional view of Samsung Electronics. It was another incident where we knew that this was not the Samsung Electronics of the past.

[Anchor]
I think most people say that the semiconductor strategy has failed. Chairman Lee Kun-hee's declaration of changing everything except for his wife and children is now the 31st anniversary. What do you personally think is the most important part of Chairman Lee Jae-yong's leadership?

[Jung Chuljin]
I think it was about technology development. Perhaps because this is coupled with various judicial risks, Chairman Lee Jae-yong needs to talk about leadership himself. In a broad sense, Samsung Electronics is a company that has to appeal with growth potential and technology, and to be an investor with technology or something like this. But at some point, if there is technology development and financial management, this company has begun to move toward stability.

There is a vacuum in the world due to the leadership of the head of the company, so shouldn't the remaining people be the first to not have an accident? So, as the so-called financiers lead the entire Samsung Electronics, the most important technical part has been left behind, technological behind, and there are always power games in the organization. If there is technology and finance, it can be said that the technology sector has largely deviated from the technology sector as the finance sector has been promoted, and that's the reality of HBM.

Is it technology development or cost reduction? We are technology. Spend more money. R&D is technology development, and the current Samsung organization is a symbolic keyword for cost reduction. financially toward financial statements Then, of course, it can weaken in terms of technology. Among the various factors, this issue seems to be mentioned the most as well as the current reality.

[Anchor]
Chairman Lee Jae-yong is refraining from making public comments.Ma may release a message of management reform soon, so I'll wait a little bit. Interest rates are one of the interests of the financial sector. I'm interested in whether interest rates will fall again, but President Lee Chang-yong talked about something meaningful. Please show us the graphic.

If you make a patient and give him medicine, he said, "Is this a name?" It's like intentionally hurting a patient a lot, using medicine, and then calling it your name. If interest rates are raised, households will also suffer, so they are trying to control prices without much shock. It seems that some people have refuted this part with the rate adjustment practice, what explanation is it?

[Jung Chuljin]
Governor Lee Chang-yong probably reads some news comments. Because there are two criticisms against President Lee Chang-yong. The first criticism was, why didn't you cut interest rates quickly? Why did you cut interest rates so late that it made it difficult for the domestic economy and small business owners? Second, why didn't you raise interest rates quickly in advance? If you raise it a lot when you raise it and then lower it now, there are two points about the part where you didn't raise interest rates because of foreign exchange or something like this. What he said about the criticism that he didn't raise interest rates faster and more in the past...

[Anchor]
It means that you should have posted it then, and now it's falling more.

[Jung Chuljin]
I was just talking about the part that would have had a great effect and a lot of rooms. At that time, if the Korean economy had raised interest rates further, it would have been worse off and seriously ill, so he said he was dragging himself to a freeze as much as possible and then cut it this time, so you can see it like this. As much as this criticism, why is the rate cut now and on the other hand, reviving the economy so late? I'm getting off too late. So what should Lee Chang-yong do to me? I think I can have this kind of thought.

[Anchor]
He said this. The dollar exchange rate rose so high that it became a factor to consider again. Does this mean that you're not going to cut additional cuts this time?

[Jung Chuljin]
I think that's probably the case. There are various economic problems in Korea right now. Domestic demand is also difficult. With the recent growth shock, exports are also difficult. However, when looking at the asset market and the capital market, the question arises as to what is wrong with the exchange rate. It has risen so much as soon as possible that we don't know what kind of risks are in Korea. 1,390. Today, the remark made by Lee Chang-yong, the governor of the central bank, even if it is not a perfect verbal intervention, had some effect and fell back to the 1,380 won level, but I don't know, the exchange rate problem is very big now.

And you're going to do 1400 here again? Then there will be questions that didn't exist. So when it comes to Governor Lee Chang-yong's question about further rate cuts, I will pay attention to the exchange rate. Because the value of the currency is interest rates. So, if you raise the interest rate, the exchange will be strong, and if it falls, it will fall further, so if you look at that, wouldn't you take a break from lowering the interest rate? Whether it's Trump or Harris, if the dollar suddenly weakens and the won's exchange rate drops significantly after the presidential election, the story will be different, but it cannot be lowered at the current level of 1,380 won.

[Anchor]
But why did you cut interest rates so late? Wouldn't this side criticize you like this, saying that if you don't cut it further, you don't even cut it further?

[Jung Chuljin]
On the side of getting off more, the reason why it's going up is that a lot of money from Seohak ants is being leaked. So, if you look at the current foreign exchange, it's not a problem with foreign exchange reserves, it's a temporary mismatch, so I'll cut interest rates quickly and save the economy. So, as I said earlier, it's a criticism from both sides, but when I look at the comments and G20 press conference, I don't think I'll cut it if it doesn't fall below 1,380 won. I think I'll hold on to it again.

[Anchor]
I think the comments will get longer. So far, we've looked at economic commentator Jeong Cheol-jin and the news from the business community. Thank you for talking today.