LG to pump in a whopping $19 bn this year

South Korea's LG Group on Sunday announced plans to increase investment by 20 trillion won ($19 billion) – its biggest single investment – this year as the country's fourth-biggest conglomerate seeks to increase its market share against strong competition from bigger rivals like Samsung Electronics Co.

The company said it would invest the money in various subsidiaries, including LG Electronics. The investment will be used to boost production facilities and fund research and development of products.

The group has some 40 subsidiaries, including LG Electronics Inc, flat panel heavyweight LG Display Co Ltd, mobile service provider LG Uplus Corp, chemicals firm LG Chem Ltd and holding company LG Corp.

Almost two-thirds of the investment will be allocated to increase production facilities at the group's electronics businesses. This will include expanding production lines to manufacture ultra-high resolution liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light emitting diode (OELD) display panels.

It will spend 14 trillion won on its factories, while 6 trillion won will go into research and development.

The total represents a 19.1 per cent increase from its 2012 spending of 16.8 trillion won, LG Group said in a statement.

The company said that its research and development investment would focus on developing smartphone software and next generation flexible and transparent display panels.

The group, which employed 125,000 workers domestically at the end of 2012, also plans to recruit more than 15,000 employees this year, it said.