The South Korean financial watchdog said Thursday it has ordered some Lotte Group affiliates to submit more detailed information on their shareholders and financial status amid growing public criticism about the retail giant's murky corporate governance.

Lotte Group, the fifth-largest business group in South Korea, has been embroiled in a succession feud involving Shin Kyuk-ho, 93, the group's founder, and his two sons, Dong-ju and Dong-bin, with the latter standing against his older brother and father.

The family feud has shed light on the opaque corporate management structure of Lotte Group, which was founded in Japan by a Korean family and does business in both countries.

The Financial Supervisory Service said it has ordered Hotel Lotte Co., Lotte Corp., Lotte Aluminum Co. and Lotte Logistics Co. to give more details of their major shareholders' information. Japan-based Lotte Holdings, the group's holding firm, and other investment companies are the largest shareholders of the four Lotte units.

"We've recently found out that the four Lotte units were missing some information in their annual reports," said Jang Joon-kyung from the Corporate Disclosure Department at the FSS. "We notified them to fill in the data."

Most of the group's managerial information is not open to public as only nine firms, out of hundreds of affiliates and units, including Lotte Shopping Co. and Lotte Chemical Co., are listed on the South Korean bourse. Lotte Group is estimated to have had 61 trillion won ($52 billion) in sales last year. (Yonhap)