Battle for Management Control
Lotte Group announced on June 17 that Lotte Holdings Co., the Japan-based holding company of the Group, will hold its 2016 regular shareholders' meeting at the headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, from 9 am on June 25.
Shin Dong-joo, the former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings, has demanded in March through Kojunsha Corp., or Kwang Yoon Sa, that Lotte Holdings shareholders vote on his proposal calling for the dismissal of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and Lotte Holdings President Takayuki Tsukuda from the post of company director at the shareholders' meeting. Lotte Holdings is expected to adopt the proposal as a formal agenda item for a vote at the upcoming meeting.
Previously, former vice chairman Shin Dong-joo failed to win shareholder support at Lotte Holdings' previous shareholders' meeting in March. Since then, he has reportedly made efforts to win the employee shareholders' association, which holds nearly 28 percent of Lotte Holdings, over, bracing for the shareholders' meeting.
Chairman Shin Dong-bin also went to Japan on the 16th right after his business trip to the U.S., preparing for the meeting. Despite prosecutors' widening probe into suspicions of Lotte Group’s slush fund and other illegal acts, he put shareholders’ support first to protect his control of the group.
Meanwhile, Lotte Holdings Japan shares are owned by Kojunsha with 28.1 percent, the employee shareholders' association with 27.8 percent and the employee shareholders' association with 6 percent. In particular, more than the 98 percent stake of Hotel Lotte, the de facto holding company of Korea-based Lotte affiliates, are owned by Lotte Japan's affiliates, including Lotte Holdings with 19.07 percent, 12 investment firms established by Lotte Holdings with 72.65 percent and Kojunsha with 5.45 percent.