Lotte most active player in Korean M&A market

Lotte Group, South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate, was the most active among local business groups in the mergers and acquisitions field over the past six years, data showed Wednesday.

The nation's top 30 business groups were engaged in 272 M&As worth a combined 46.75 trillion won ($42.9 billion) since 2010, according to CEO Score that tracks the nation's large enterprises.

So far this year alone, 17 M&A cases worth 7 trillion won have been reported by the family-run conglomerates, called chaebol here, which wield enormous power over the national economy, as they attempted to bolster their mainstay businesses and shed noncore assets.

Lotte Group has purchased 28 firms, including a convenient store chain and an electronic goods retailer, over the past six years to beef up its retail and food business. The retail giant has spent 9.76 trillion won on M&As, the largest among others.

Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automotive group, has spent a total of 5.54 trillion won to acquire 4 companies, including an engineering unit and a construction company.

POSCO came in third with 10 M&As worth 4.89 trillion won, trailed by SK Group with 4.47 trillion won and Hanwha Group with 3.57 trillion won.

While cash-rich chaebol have used M&As as a convenient way to expand their sprawling business empires, market watchers stressed the industry leaders' efforts to foster new growth drivers to revitalize Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Samsung, the country's top conglomerate, has been relatively inactive in taking over other firms, but recently it is reportedly in talks to take over a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobile NV, a deal estimated at $3 billion, in a bid to diversify its business portfolio that's mainly focused on electronics. (Yonhap)