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| Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin Yonhap |
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| SDJ Corporation chairman Shin Dong-joo Yonhap |
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| Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho Yonhap |
Monday marked the 100th day of the internal feud at Lotte Group’s founding Shin family.
And yes, by now we are sick and tired of the story where the eldest son and the father are attacking the second for dethroning them from the helm.
But with their dispute now in court ― former Lotte Holdings vice chairman Shin Dong-joo filed an injunction against Lotte Shopping management ― perhaps it is time for us to take a break and look into the gist of the saga.
1. What are they fighting for? Why?
SDJ Corporation chairman Dong-joo is the eldest son of Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho. Until last year, it was evident that he would control the 90-trillion-won ($79.5 billion) Lotte Group by heading Lotte Japan, which technically owns Lotte Korea.
However, he was ousted from his management position at Lotte Japan earlier this year. In July, his younger brother and Lotte chairman Shin Dong-bin also sacked Shin Kyuk-ho from the chairmanship of the empire’s pinnacle Lotte Holdings in Japan by winning the approval of board members. This severed Shin Dong-joo’s succession for good.
However, Shin Dong-joo claims his brother, Shin Dong-bin, hid fiscal records to conceal losses inflicted from Chinese operations, and that their sacking was illegal. The court acknowledged the claim and the second round of the trial to secure the accounting books of Lotte Shopping ― one of the main axes of Lotte Group ― will be held in December.
Dong-joo made a public appearance in October, claiming he has control of the Lotte Holdings ― the group’s holding company ― and is gearing up to take over Lotte Group.
2.Why is this case drawing media attention?
Not only because it is a soap opera-ish betrayal and revenge story, but the recent tantrum has for the first time revealed the dirty laundry inside the group that has been notoriously reclusive.
Only a handful of Lotte affiliates are listed on the local bourse, while the rest have remained closed, controlled by the Shin clan through a highly complicated ownership structure.
The Fair Trade Commission acknowledged that the country’s fifth-largest business conglomerate once had more than 10,000 cyclical shareholding structures, which was reduced to 416 after the government tightened regulations a couple years ago.
Through the complicated ownership system, even the government was unable to figure out the governance structure, which led to suspicions of opaque tax payments. But the Shin siblings brought the shady governance to light during their “tell-it-all” game.
In order to dilute the Japanese parent company’s influence in the Korean operation, Shin Dong-bin vowed to dissolve more than 80 percent of it by the end of the year.
This is expected to raise the transparency in the management of the company with more than 90,000 workers in Korea and many more across Asia and even in the U.S.
3. How does the Lotte scandal affect the country’s economy and the public?
With more people expressing frustration over the brouhaha, the government is being pressed to strip Lotte of several lucrative and state-led business deals.
One of them is the special license to operate an urban duty-free store in Seoul. The bidding results will be out by the end of the month, but there are persistent rumors that Lotte may lose the license. This could put thousands of Lotte Duty Free workers at risk of unemployment.
The stock price of some of the listed companies have been fluctuating over the past three months.
“Before, Lotte was the symbol of stability. Its stock price didn’t go up much, but didn’t lose much either. But now investors are anxious after learning about the ugly side of the controlling family and the possible business damage their spat could cause,” a stock analyst said.
4. How will this end?
Shin Dong-joo earlier said that he hopes to have control of Lotte Japan, with Shin Dong-bin taking over Lotte Korea: Just as their father had reportedly planned.
However, Shin Dong-bin has proclaimed that he wants “One Leader, One Lotte,” and is not showing any signs of backing down.
Regardless of who the victor is, things will never be the same, pundits say. “The public, the government and the world will always be cautious of Lotte’s moves, even if it bounces back. That’s something you can’t buy off,” he said.
By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)
