Chairman Shin Dong-bin of Lotte Group.

Chairman Shin Dong-bin of Lotte Group will now speed up his drive to revamp the structure of Lotte Holdings in Japan to make it more transparent now that he has taken control of Lotte Holdings in Japan after a one year absence.

The board of directors of Lotte Holdings approved the proposal to reinstate Chairman Shin as the representative of the company at a meeting held on Feb. 20 at the Shinjuku headquarter in Tokyo.

“The company needs desperately Chairman Shin’s management skills that led the excellent growth of Lotte Group at this time when the global economy is unpredictable and the digitalization has been rapidly changing the business environment,” the board said in a statement for approving the proposal for the reinstatement of Chairman Shin.

The chairman’s return to his old job has been expected. He quit as the representative of Lotte Holdings in Japan in February last year as he was put behind bars presumably due to his alleged connection with Choi Sun-shil who has been charged with illegal tempering with state affairs. The leaders of Lotte Holdings felt that the chairman may have to step down as the head of Lotte Holdings.

But the chairman won a counter suit against the charge that colluded with Choi in October the same year and got out of jail, paving the way for his return to his old job at Lotte Holdings. The chairman was still a registered director with Lotte Holdings even during his brief incarceration making it easy for him to return to his old job as its representative director.

He will share the CEO position with President Takayuki Tsukuda at Lotte Holdings in Japan as has been the case in Seoul, where he has been sharing the top executive position with Vice Chairman Hwang Kak-kyu in running the Lotte Group in Korea.

Now that he got his old job back at Lotte Holdings, he is expected to resume his drive to make the transparency of the domination structure at the company clearer.

First up in the drive would be the IPO of Hotel Lotte in the stock market with Japanese shareholders holding 99 percent stake in the hotel. The hotel holds stakes in a number of key Lotte Group affiliates in Korea including Lotte Trading, Lotte Co., and Lotte Rental, to name some, therefore, a key to solving the transparency issues.

Chairman Shin wants to make Lotte Holdings at the center of the dominance structure of Lotte Group after listing Hotel Lotte. “It’s not only Hotel Lotte that will be listed, but Lotte Confectionary in Japan is also up for IPO to spur the transparency of domination structure of Lotte Group,” said officials of Lotte Group.

A Seoul appeals court released Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin from jail after suspending a bribery and embezzlement sentence that had created a leadership vacuum atop the South Korean retail giant for almost eight months.

The Seoul High Court on Friday (Oct 5) said the 30-month sentence was suspended for four years. Shin had been convicted following a series of probes into the retail-to-chemicals giant, including a bribery investigation that led to the departure of former president Park Geun-hye.

Lotte Group, which had about $100 billion (S$138 billion) of assets as of 2017, had been under investigation since 2015 when a family feud over control erupted into public view. Amid the rivalry between Shin Dong-bin and Shin Dong-joo, allegations of bribery and other corruption emerged, sparking the probe.

Shin Dong-bin became the largest individual shareholder of the group’s main holding company Lotte Corp, with a 10.5 per cent stake, after a sweeping reorganization last year that helped consolidate his control by sidelining his older brother.

A view of the building in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where Lotte Holdings Japan has offices. (Photos: Lotte Holdings)