Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-yong and China’s Citic Group chairman Chang Zhenming met Wednesday in Beijing to extend their partnership in the soaring Chinese stock market, officials said Thursday.

During the meeting, Lee, the de facto head of South Korea’s largest conglomerate, suggested expanding the partnership into various finance areas such as exchange-traded fund business.

Citic’s Chang also showed a positive response, proposing to install a new communication channel to continue concrete discussions at the working level.

Their meeting comes after Samsung Securities and Citic Securities on March 9 agreed a strategic partnership.

Under a memorandum of understanding, the two firms agreed to share research information and cooperate for cross-sales of products and employee exchanges.

Citic Securities is China’s largest securities firm and the world’s fourth largest by market value. The enhanced partnership is expected to offer a boon for Samsung to expand its presence in China beyond device sales.

According to Samsung, more than half the stock trades of Koreans in China are now handled through Samsung Securities since the Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect in November.

In December, Jay-yong’s elder sister Boo-jin, president of Samsung-affiliated Hotel Shilla, was named outside director of Citic Group.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)