Shin’s last connection to Lotte severed

The last tie that Shin Dong-joo, former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings and the older brother of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, had with Lotte Group’s Korea operation was severed Thursday as he lost his post as registered executive of Lotte Hotel.

Shareholders of Lotte Hotel held an undisclosed meeting on Thursday where Dong-joo was ousted as executive. The older brother has been losing his executive posts at Korean Lotte Group affiliates starting with Lotte International in December 2014. In June he lost other positions within Lotteria, Lotte E&C and Lotte Aluminum.

At the meeting the shareholders voted on several issues regarding the initial public offering (IPO) process of the hotel, which is the de facto holding company of the Korean Lotte Group, including stock split. The move is to lower the stake owned by Lotte Group’s Japan operation. Lotte Holdings owns 19 percent of Lotte Hotel.

“The meeting was held to take the steps in completing the IPO [of Lotte Hotel] by the end of the year,” said a Lotte Hotel official.

Dong-joo, who previously was in charge of Lotte Group businesses in Japan, was elbowed out by his younger brother Dong-bin, who took over both the conglomerate’s businesses in Japan and in Korea; unifying them under a single chairman.

BY KOO HUI-LYUNG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]