South Korean retail giant Lotte Group said Thursday its Japanese shareholders support the current leadership despite the ongoing succession feud, in an effort to clear up uncertainties surrounding the preparation for listing its hotel unit.
  

The listing of Hotel Lotte is one of the reform pledges that Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin has made to assuage public disgust over a bitter family feud over control of the retail-focused conglomerate, which has sprawling businesses both in South Korea and Japan.
  

The Korea Exchange, South Korea's main bourse in charge of reviewing its initial public offering application, has demanded Lotte prove whether its corporate governance structure is stable enough to proceed with the current process.
  

In response, Lotte said it has submitted a document showing that 60 percent of Lotte Holdings' shareholders support the current leadership. Japan-based Lotte Holdings is the largest shareholder of Hotel Lotte with a 19.1 percent stake.
  

"The Hotel Lotte IPO is expected to proceed without delay as major concerns have been cleared up," a senior Lotte official said. "We will make efforts to complete its listing by the first half of next year."
  

The latest move came as Lotte has been mired in a leadership dispute between the group founder's two sons -- Dong-joo and Dong-bin -- since last summer. The two sons had each controlled the company's operations in Japan and Korea until earlier this year.
  

While the eldest son Dong-joo was ousted from 26 key positions at Japanese units between last December and January this year, Dong-bin took the helm of Tokyo-based Lotte Holdings, the group's holding firm, after winning support from Japanese shareholders in August.
  

On Monday, Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho filed the charges against his youngest son Dong-bin, chairman of the group, and two other chief executives of the group's units for business obstruction and concealing properties.
  

Hotel Lotte's push for an IPO comes despite the group losing one of its two duty-free stores in Seoul last month.
  

Lotte kept a location in Myeongdong, a popular shopping district in downtown, but lost the operational license for another at Lotte World Tower in southeastern Seoul.
  

The conglomerate earlier said Hotel Lotte is expected to have a market capitalization of around 10 trillion won ($8.6 billion) when it is publicly traded, but market watchers say losing the Jamsil store could lead to that re-evaluation of its market value. (Yonhap)