SEOUL, March 25 (Reuters) - South Korean tech giant

Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) said on Tuesday that its

co-chief executive officer Han Jong-hee has died due to cardiac

arrest. Han was 63.

Han was in charge of Samsung's consumer electronics and

mobile devices division, while co-CEO Jun Young-hyun oversees

the chip business of South Korea's biggest company.

Han passed away at a hospital on Tuesday while being treated

for cardiac arrest, a company spokesperson said, adding that a

successor had not yet been decided.

Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) shares were flat in morning trade.

The South Korean firm has been suffering from weak earnings

and sagging share prices in recent quarters after falling behind

rivals in advanced memory chips and contract chip manufacturing,

which have enjoyed strong demand from AI projects. Samsung has

also ceded its smartphone market crown to Apple ( AAPL ).

Han, who joined Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) nearly 40 years ago,

built his career in the TV business. He became vice chairman and

CEO of Samsung Electronics ( SSNLF ) in 2022. Han was also one of the

company's board members.

He chaired Samsung's shareholder meeting last week, where he

and other executives were grilled by shareholders after the

company's failure to ride an artificial intelligence boom made

it one of the worst-performing tech stocks last year.

In semiconductors, Samsung lags behind SK Hynix ( HXSCF ) in HBM chips

that Nvidia ( NVDA ) and others rely on for AI graphic

processing units.

"First and foremost, I sincerely apologise for the recent

stock performance not meeting your expectations. Over the past

year, our company failed to adequately respond to the rapidly

evolving AI semiconductor market," Han said.

He was scheduled to attend Samsung's launch event for new

home appliances on Wednesday.