Tokyo-based Lotte Holdings owns a 100 percent stake in investment units in Japan that are believed to be at the apex of the retail giant Lotte Group’s complex ownership structure, a report showed Thursday.
Lotte Holdings, the ostensible holding company of Lotte affiliates in Japan and Korea, holds a 100 percent stake in some 12 subsidiaries of the investment company, dubbed “L Investment Company,” according to the report compiled by South Korea’s Lotte Group.
Shin Dong-bin, the chairman of Seoul-based Lotte Group, was registered as the chief executive of the investment units as of July 31, replacing his father Shin Kyuk-ho, the group founder.
The report shows that Dong-bin, who took the helm of Lotte Holdings after ousting his father and brother last month, can also control Hotel Lotte Co., which serves as a holding company of the retail conglomerate’s businesses in the country, through L Investment Company.
Subsidiaries of L Investment Company hold a majority stake in Hotel Lotte.
The country’s fifth-largest conglomerate has been at the center of a media spotlight since a power struggle among the founder and his two sons to gain control of the group broke out in late July.
The ugly family feud shed light on the issue of Lotte’s murky corporate management system and complex circular shareholding structure, under which the group’s owner family makes behind-the-scene decisions and wields almighty power over the entire group.
The group’s stake ownership, including L Investment Company, has been kept behind closed doors, with most of Lotte’s affiliates, including Hotel Lotte, remaining unlisted.
Earlier this week, Shin Dong-bin announced that he will push for the listing of Hotel Lotte and unwind its complex circular shareholding structure. But he did not give a detailed schedule for the listing. (Yonhap)
