Lotte unit shares on the rise with group chairman back to control tower

By Lim Chang-won Posted : October 8, 2018, 16:30 Updated : October 8, 2018, 16:30

Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin walks into the lobby of Lotte World Tower in southern Seoul. [Yonhap News Photo]


SEOUL -- Shares of key Lotte units rose Monday as group chairman Shin Dong-bin chaired the first meeting of top executives in eight months, raising expectations that South Korea's fifth largest conglomerate would reactivate overseas investments such as a petrochemical project in Indonesia.

The meeting took place at Shin's office in Lotte World Tower, South Korea's high-rise landmark in southern Seoul, three days after the High Court released him from prison with a suspended sentence.

Lotte was put under emergency management controlled by a body of top executives in February when a district court in Seoul sentenced Shin to two years and six months in prison on charges of bribing Choi Soon-sil, the crony of South Korea's ousted ex-president Park Geun-hye.

Shin's unexpected imprisonment has clouded prospects for crucial investments and projects at home and abroad, including Lotte Chemical's four trillion won ($3.5 billion) investment through a subsidiary in Malaysia to build a petrochemical complex in Indonesia by 2023.

The group stepped up its presence in  Southeast Asia as it became the prime target of China's trade retaliation that began after it allowed US troops to set up a missile shield in its golf course in 2016.

Lotte is scaling down its department store business in China following the withdrawal of its troubled hypermarket chain hit by a prolonged consumer boycott. Shin had sought the realignment of group structure by launching a holding company and through the initial public offering of Hotel Lotte.
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