SK Group sent the largest-ever team of Korean businessman delegates to Iran, who accompanied President Park Geun-hye on a state visit to Iran recently.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won headed the SK delegation, composed of six SK CEOs and executives. They included Chairman Yoo Jung-joon of the SK Global Growth Committee, concurrently president of SK E&S; SK Telecom President Jang Dong-hyun; SK Networks President Moon Jong-hoon; SK Energy President Kim Joon; and SKTI President Song Jin-hwa.
SK Chairman Chey or CEOs of SK subsidiaries travelled overseas as part of an economic delegation. They accompanied President Park frequently in the past, but it is the first time that such a large number of SK CEOs accompanied the president. Chey is the chairman of the biggest Korean conglomerate among the business delegates. Chairman Chey arrived in Teheran International Airport aboard his private plane.
SK Group sent the largest-ever delegation to Iran because the country is just beginning to open its markets in the wake of the removal of economic sanctions, making Iran a huge market of huge potential in such areas as crude oil, infrastructure reconstruction and ICT.
SK Group, specializing in such mainstay businesses as energy, information and communications, and urban construction, has an advantage in exploring the Iranian market in the form of a package of businesses, business analysts said.
SK has been accelerating efforts to reinvigorate the national economy by expanding its global presence and achieve growth.
Upon his arrival in Tehran on May 1, SK Group Chairman Chey participated in a local workshop with other SK CEOs. He had a tight business schedule with meetings with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh before returning home on May 3.
SK Innovation and SK Network are SK Group’s subsidiaries, which already have do big business in the Iranian market. SK Innovation imported 5.366 million barrels of crude oil from Iran in January and February, the largest amount among Korean refiners. The figure accounted for 76.5 percent of a combined 7.346 million barrels of crude oil the company imported during the whole of last year.
SK Network, which opened a branch in Tehran in 1984, also has business there. The company has maintained business ties with its Iranian partners for about 30 years, even though other Korean companies withdrew from Iran due to political and economic uncertainties.
SK E&C is also actively considering making inroads into the Iranian construction market.
SK Telecom Set a Foot in Iranian IoT Market
SK Telecom has successfully entered the Iranian automatic meter reading market, which is estimated to be worth 3 trillion won to 4 trillion won.
Korea’s largest telecom service provider made the feat as the company steps on the gas to diversify its business portfolios, shifting from its mainstay information and telecommunications business, and explore the IoT business as a cash cow.
SK Telecom signed an MOU for cooperation in the IoT segment with the Iranian energy ministry and National Iranian Oil Company in Tehran on May 2.
Under the agreement, SK Telecom and NIGC plan to launch a pilot gas automatic meter reading project based on the LoRa for about households in Tehran in the second half of this year. The LoRa is an alliance of international standard IoT technology with a membership of about 200 companies, including SK Telecom, Semtech of the United States, IBM, and Cisco.
ARSH will be in charge of the operation of the IoT network, while SK Telecom and the Iranian energy ministry will be charged with offering the IoT service using an automatic meter reading solution for 15 large-size buildings in Teheran.
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