Hotel Lotte IPO Likely to Be Put on Fast Track

Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin

Lotte Group announced on March 19 that group chairman Shin Dong-bin was elected as the chairman of the board of directors of Lotte Holdings in Japan on March 18. As Shin has become the chairman of Lotte Holdings, the initial public offering of Hotel Lotte is expected to speed up.

The listing of Lotte Hotel is the first step towards cutting the link between Lotte’s operations in Korea and Japan. Shin has made a promise to the Korean people that he would dismantle the shareholding structure where Lotte Holdings in Japan controls Lotte Group in Korea through Hotel Lotte.

"Shin has secured full control of Lotte’s operations in Korea and Japan," Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Shin is expected to expand the hotel business to Japan while preparing to list Lotte Confectionary in Japan by March 2022, it reported.


Shin’s ascendancy to Lotte Holdings’ chairmanship is expected to end his dispute with his brother over the control of the Lotte business empire. Shin Dong-joo, the chairman of SDJ Corp. and a former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings in Japan, did not show any reaction to his younger brother’s appointment as chairman of Lotte Holdings.

Shin will officially take office as chairman of Lotte Holdings on April 1. The post was held by honorary chairman Shin Kyuk-ho, the founder of Lotte Group who passed away in January, and has remained vacant since the senior Shin was promoted to the honorary chairman in 2017.

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