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Samsung Chairman Lee visits India for Ambani wedding

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Radhika Merchant (left) and Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani (Downloaded from Anant Ambani’s Instagram)

Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Jay Y. Lee on Thursday visited India for the wedding of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and Radhika Merchant, a pharmaceutical heiress, as the South Korean tech giant is expanding its businesses in the world’s most populous country.

Lee, also the leader of South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung Group, arrived in Mumbai to attend their marriage on Friday at the Jio World Convention Center owned by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest private sector corporation, according to sources in Seoul.

Lee celebrated the weddings of the Indian tycoon’s daughter Isha Ambani in 2018 and the other son Akash Ambani in 2019, respectively, in person.

Mukesh Ambani was estimated to have assets of some $120 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Reliance is an Indian conglomerate whose businesses include, energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media and textiles.

EXTRAVAGANT WEDDING

The extravagant ceremony for Anant Ambani and Merchant on July 12-14 is set to conclude a slew of lavish parties the family hosted since March.

The couple held a three-day pre-wedding party in the western city of Jamnagar, Gujarat, in March with a performance by global pop star Rihanna attended by high-profile guests such as Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates.

In May, Anant Ambani and Merchant had a Mediterranean cruise for friends and family. The couple opened another party in Mumbai later in the month with a performance by Justin Bieber.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee arrives at Gimpo International Airport in Seoul on June 13, 2024, after a business trip to the US (File photo by Yonhap)

SAMSUNG IN INDIA

Lee is expected to visit Samsung’s units in India and meet executives of network partners after the wedding ceremony.

Samsung, which supplies 5G telecommunication equipment and others in India, is a network industry powerhouse in the country, the world’s second-largest mobile communication market with a population of 1.4 billion.

The company in 2012 exclusively provided Reliance Jio, India’s largest telco, with 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network equipment and built up networks in 2014 to complete the country’s first nationwide 4g LTE network in two years.

Samsung won 5G equipment supply deals worth 1 trillion won ($726 million) in total from Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s No. 2 carrier in 2021-2022.

Indian customers experience Samsung Electronics products at its flagship store in Mumbai in January 2024 (File photo by Samsung)

The Galaxy series maker topped India’s smartphone market with a mobile phone factory in Noida, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) southeast of New Delhi.

Samsung, which has been in the country since 1995, operates a home appliances plant in Sriperumbudur, 40 km southwest of Chennai, research and development centers and a design center hiring some 18,000 employees.

By Jeong-Soo Hwang

hjs@hankyung.com

 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.

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