Samsung agrees to sell printing business to HP

The company logo is displayed at the Samsung news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 7, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

SEOUL - Samsung Electronics said on Monday that it has agreed to sell its printing business to the US-based HP as part of efforts to focus more on its core business areas.

The company's board of directors approved the sale agreement, in which Samsung would sell the entire global operations and assets of its printing business to HP, the South Korean tech giant said in a statement.

Samsung will spin off the printing unit as a separate company on Nov 1 in order to sell a 100-percent stake in the separated company to HP. The entire stake will reportedly be sold for 1.05 billion US dollars.

Samsung's printing unit, which employees about 6,000 workers and has a production base in China and more than 50 sales offices globally, posted 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in revenue in 2015.

Separately, the Samsung board of directors proposed the nomination of Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong as a member of the board to be approved in an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for next month.

Samsung said the time is now right to nominate Lee, only son of Chairman Lee Kun-hee who has been hospitalized for more than two years, as a board member to allow him to take a more active role in the company's strategic decision-making.

The company said it is charting a path for continued profitable growth through bold and timely investments in core areas and by pursuing new future businesses, which require strategic decisions based on a long-term vision.

As the global smartphone market is increasingly saturated, Samsung is seeking ways to continue to generate profits by investing in new growth engines such as biosimilar and electronic parts used for cars.