[THE INVESTOR] Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin will continue in his current position as Japanese shareholders of the holding firm Oct. 26 voted in his favor. The chairman promised reform measures to restore the South Korean retail giant’s image dented by a corruption investigation.

Shin attended a meeting of Lotte Holdings shareholders at its Tokyo headquarters, one day after making a public apology and announcing a series of measures to improve the group’s opaque governance structure at a press conference in Seoul.

During the three-hour meeting, Japanese shareholders were briefed on the latest developments in the investigation and agreed to keep the incumbent chief in the current job, according to Lotte officials.

Lotte Holdings serves as a de facto holding firm for major Lotte subsidiaries in Japan and South Korea. It also holds a 19 percent stake in Hotel Lotte, a hidden jewel that seeks to list its shares on the Seoul bourse.

Last week, South Korean prosecutors indicted the 61-year-old tycoon without physical detention on charges of orchestrating a series of shady deals at the group‘s affiliates, as well as giving large stipends to the owner’s family for just being listed as board members of the conglomerate’s Korean and Japanese branches.


(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)