Shareholders of LG Electronics Inc. approved a plan Friday that reduced the number of board members to seven directors from nine, in what the company says is a move to better cope with the rapidly changing global market environment.

LG Electronics CEO Jo Seong-jin, who was nominated to take up the post last December, was formally appointed at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Seoul.

Jo, a high school graduate with no bachelor's degree who joined LG Electronics in 1976, was credited with helping LG's home appliance business post healthy profits at a time when its smartphone business suffered prolonged losses.

One of the two directors who left the board was LG's chief of smartphone business division, Cho Juno.

Cho is expected to focus on making efforts to rehabilitate the company's money-losing smartphone business, company officials said.

Previously, LG Electronics was jointly run by three chief executives, but Friday's appointment allows Jo to serve as the sole CEO, according to LG officials.

Koo Bon-joon, vice chairman of LG Corp., the holding company of LG Group, was appointed as chairman of the board of LG Electronics.

During the shareholder meeting, LG Electronics chief financial officer, Chung Do-hyun, expressed hope that the company's new flagship smartphone, the G6, will "lay the groundwork" to revive its smartphone business.

With its flagship smartphones failing to appeal to consumers amid tougher competition with Chinese brands, LG's smartphone division has posted operating losses since the third quarter of 2015.

During the fourth quarter of last year, LG's smartphone business division reported an operating loss of 467 billion won ($411.8 million) on sales of 2.9 trillion won.

The smartphone business division's fourth-quarter sales last year slumped 21 percent on-year. (Yonhap)