The Late Lotte Group Founder's Will Disclosed
Lotte Holdings of Japan has rejected a shareholder proposal for dismissal of Shin Dong-bin, chairman of Korea’s Lotte Group, from the company’s board. The proposal was submitted by Shin Dong-ju, the embittered elder brother of the Lotte Group chairman and a former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings in Japan.
Lotte Group said the proposal was voted down at a regular shareholders' meeting of Lotte Holdings in Tokyo on June 24. "Proposals submitted by the company’s management were all approved. But the proposals presented by Shin Dong-ju for the dismissal of Shin Dong-bin and for revision of the articles of association were rejected," Lotte Group said in a press release.
In April, Shin Dong-joo, who is currently chairman of SDJ Corp., submitted the proposal for amendment of the articles of association, asserting that a convicted person should not be allowed to take office as a director of Lotte Holdings. Shin Dong-bin was convicted in 2018 for giving money to a confidante of former President of South Korea Park Geun-hye.
Shin Dong-joo has thus far lost a total of six votes at Lotte Holdings in Japan since 2015. Although Shin Dong-joo holds a 28.1 percent stake in Kojunsha Corp., the largest shareholder of Lotte Holdings in Japan, he has been unable to win the votes because major shareholders such as the employee stock ownership association (27.8 percent) and related companies (6.0 percent) support Shin Dong-bin. Shin Dong-bin holds a 4.0 percent stake in Lotte Holdings and Shin Dong-joo a 1.6 percent stake.
Meanwhile, Lotte Group said that Shin Dong-bin has recently found the late Lotte Group honorary chairman Shin Kyuk-ho's will in the latter’s office in Tokyo, and disclosed it to executives of Lotte Group in Korea and Japan. According to the group, the late honorary chairman stated in the will that he would make Shin Dong-bin his successor.
"I found the will written by the honorary chairman in his own handwriting while checking articles left by him at his office in Tokyo," Shin Dong-bin was quoted as saying. "I feel a great sense of responsibility because the will says that the successor of Lotte Group in Korea, Japan, and other parts of the world after his death will be Shin Dong-bin." The late Shin Kyuk-ho wrote and signed the will in his own handwriting in March 2000 and kept it in a safe in his Tokyo office, Lotte Group said.