The only son of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin on Wednesday has been elected to join the board of directors at Lotte Holdings in Japan, paving the way for a third-generation succession for Lotte, according to group officials.
Shin Yoo-yeol, 38, who serves as an executive director of the Future Growth Office at Lotte Corp., the holding firm for Lotte’s businesses in South Korea, was elected to the board at Lotte Holdings in Japan at a shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo.
Shareholders of Lotte Holdings elected Yoo-yeol as director as he has a deep understanding of the overall business of Lotte Group and ample experience in finances and business strategies, the group said in a statement.
Yoo-yeol began his career at Lotte Group in 2020 when he took a job at the sales division in Lotte Holdings.
The heir apparent to the retail-to-chemical conglomerate is expected to participate in Lotte Holdings’ board meetings over key management decisions.
Early this month, he acquired a 0.01 percent stake in Lotte Holding
s to help enhance its corporate value and achieve responsible management, according to Lotte Group.
On top of his positions in the two holding firms, Yoo-yeol serves as chief executive officer of Lotte Strategic Investment and Lotte Financial in Japan, while being in charge of global business strategy at Lotte Biologics in Korea.
In February, he was elected as executive director of Lotte Biologics.
In a statement released ahead of the shareholders meeting, the chairman’s elder brother, Dong-joo, said he will oppose the nomination of Yoo-yeol to the board in Wednesday’s vote, citing his unproven management ability.
Dong-Joo also demanded shareholders to vote to allow him to return to Lotte Holdings’ board as director and oust Dong-bin from the board in his latest attempt after nine failed attempts for the same purposes between 2016 and 2023.
But his 10th attempt also failed, with Dong-bin maintaining his directorship.
Dong-joo is the head of Kojunsha, which owns a 28.1 percent stake in Lotte Holdings. He
owns a 1.77 percent stake in the holding company.
The Lotte chairman and his brother were at the center of a high-profile family feud over succession at Lotte Group until their father and the group founder Shin Kyuk-ho’s death in January 2020 as the two control the company’s operations in Japan and South Korea, respectively.
Dong-bin officially became the successor to his father for the conglomerate in 2015.
Source: Yonhap News Agency