Lotte Group Vice Chmn. More Active in Global Business

To expand its business horizons abroad and in Korea through M&As

Lotte Group Vice Chairman Shin Dong-bin has been accelerating his bid to reach his group’s management global. Shin, the second son of Group Chairman and founder Shin Kyuk-ho, is known as “Global Shin” since he spends at least 100 days abroad each year, making inspections of global businesses in such countries as China, Vietnam and Russia.
For the first time in the recent years, the junior Shin himself also participated in an investor relations session for Lotte Group hosted by Nomura Securities Co. London branch office on June 17. He briefed the attendees on the business performances of his group’s subsidiaries, including KP Chemical Corp. and Honam Petrochemical Co., and had discussions with the participants. His participation in the IR session followed his trip to Moscow in which he attended a ceremony to partially open the Lotte Hotel Moscow on June 15.
The vice chairman last participated in an IR session when Lotte Shopping was simultaneously listed on the bourses in Seoul and London. The background of Shin’s participation in the latest IR session has become the subject of attention in business circles as to his future role in the group hierarchy.
Group officials said the group vice chairman, well versed in the financial system of London, came to the podium to explain Lotte Group to European investors in the wake of KP Chemical’s acquisition of UK-based chemical company Artenius. Shin worked for the Nomura Securities Co. London branch during the period between 1982-1988 as part of his stint of being groomed as one of the group’s heirs-apparent.
Many pundits, however, concurred that Shin’s latest move was related to the business group’s aggressive mode to expand its business portfolios in Korea and abroad.
Lotte Group recently suffered a setback in its history of M&A activities as the group failed in its bid to acquire Daewoo International Corp. The group has poured a huge 4 trillion won into expanding its business portfolios through M&As since 2008. Lotte Group have been pushing ahead with projects costing trillions of won in Korea and abroad ranging from the second Lotte World in Seoul, to the Lotte Towns in Busan, Moscow and Shenyang, China. In the latest M&A deal, Honam Petrochemical Corp., Korea’s second-largest ethylene maker, signed a deal to take over Malaysia’s Titan Chemicals Corp.
A group official stressed that the group’s latest developments are part of its efforts to realize the goal of becoming one of Asia’s top-10 companies by 2018, as suggested by the group vice chairman, and the group finds it necessary to attract active support from overseas investors.
Vice Chairman Shin reportedly said the future course of the group’s hierarchy has already been determined a long time ago ― his elder brother, Dong-joo, now the Japan Lotte vice chairman, will take the helm at the Japanese company and he will have control over all subsidiaries in Korea. He is said to have played a leading role in changing the group’s conservative approach to business.
Meanwhile, in a recent meeting of the CEOs of the group’s subsidiaries, the vice chairman called for aggressive brand management aimed at enhancing the Lotte brand’s standing and building a “young” image.
The group will begin brand management strategies in the second half of this year to flesh out Shin’s instructions, a group official said. Initially, the logo of the name “Lotte,” which have been so far divergent, will be unified, he said. The sizes, colors and proportions of the brand will be managed in a stricter manner.
The group’s determination to manage the brand was first floated by Group Chairman Shin when he delivered his New Year’s message in which he stressed the need for building a brand image that was “reliable, creative, and suggested fun.” nw

(left) Lotte Group Vice Chairman Shin Dong-bin shows off a big-size hotel key at a ceremony to open the Lotte Hotel Moscow on June 15. A facade of the Hotel Lotte Moscow.