From Metaverse to ABC... New Businesses Unveiled by Lotte at the General Meeting (Comprehensive)

Lotte Holdings Hosts 57th Shareholders' Meeting
Exhibits New Businesses Including Metaverse, AI, Big Data, and Cloud
Chairman Shin Dong-bin Reappointed as Inside Director at Meeting
All Five Agenda Items Approved as Proposed

"If you wear this and look ahead, you can see the performance of the idol group right in front of you. If you pick up the light stick in the right corner of the screen, you can also wave it."

On the afternoon of the 28th, at the new business exhibition hall set up in a corner of the lobby leading to the 31st-floor shareholders' meeting room of Lotte World Tower in Jamsil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, participant A put on a virtual reality (VR) device and waved their hand in the air. On the screen connected to the VR device, a performance video of the idol group NMIXX was shown in a digitally rendered virtual space. As A moved their head, the video on the screen followed their gaze, and A’s hand movements were accurately recognized and displayed on the screen.

At the new business exhibition hall set up at the 57th regular shareholders' meeting of Lotte Holdings held on the 28th, a shareholder is experiencing a virtual reality (VR) device.
[Photo by Lotte Holdings]

Lotte Holdings installed a new business exhibition hall at the shareholders' meeting venue again this year, following last year, to showcase to shareholders. The exhibition hall was organized into four main themes: ▲Metaverse ▲ABC (Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Cloud) ▲Mobility (autonomous driving, electric vehicle charging) ▲Life Platform. Among these, the metaverse section allowed direct experience of the metaverse implemented by Caliberus, a subsidiary of Lotte Innovate (formerly Lotte Information & Communication). Caliberus’s metaverse platform was also exhibited at CES 2024, the global electronics and IT exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA, last January.

Right behind the VR experience device, a demonstration of Caliberus’s metaverse platform was underway. The platform featured a virtual Lotte Duty Free store spanning two floors. The Lotte Duty Free metaverse store displayed fashion brand MCM’s clothes and bags, allowing users to closely examine bags or dress avatars within the platform. The avatars were intricately rendered, showing no sense of disconnect from real people, with detailed customization possible for facial feature positions and sizes. Lotte aims to implement a function soon that allows direct purchase of products worn by avatars within Caliberus.

Avatar implemented in Lotte Innovate's metaverse platform 'Caliverse'.
[Video by Myunghwan Lee]

A model of an electric vehicle charger from EVSIS was also exhibited. EVSIS, a subsidiary of Lotte Innovate, is engaged in the electric vehicle charger business that Lotte is promoting as a new business. Earlier, Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin visited EVSIS’s new smart factory in Cheongju on the 25th. At the shareholders' meeting, EVSIS showcased a prototype of a 1MW (megawatt) class charger to shareholders.

Additionally, Lotte Group’s AI integrated platform Aimember and Lotte Innovate’s cloud platform were also exhibited.

A view of the Lotte Group new business exhibition booth set up at the Lotte World Tower shareholder meeting hall in Jamsil, Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 28th.
[Photo by Lee Myunghwan]

Meanwhile, at the shareholders' meeting, Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin and Lotte Holdings’ Head of Financial Innovation Office Ko Jung-wook were reappointed as inside directors of Lotte Holdings. Newly appointed inside director was No Jun-hyung, Head of ESG Management Innovation Office. Former President of Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency Kwon Pyung-oh, Representative Lawyer of Law Firm Class Hangyeol Lee Kyung-chun, former CEO of KB Credit Information Kim Hae-kyung, and Professor of Business Administration at Seoul National University Park Nam-gyu were reappointed as outside directors. Among the outside directors, Kim Hae-kyung and Park Nam-gyu were appointed as audit committee members.

Lotte Holdings approved the 57th fiscal year financial statements, recording consolidated sales of 15.1 trillion KRW and operating profit of 493.7 billion KRW last year. Compared to the previous year, sales increased by 7.43% and operating profit by 0.79%. Additionally, a cash dividend of 1,500 KRW per common share was decided. To enhance dividend predictability for investors, an amendment to the articles of incorporation allowing the dividend record date to be set differently from the shareholders' meeting voting rights exercise date was also passed.

Lee Dong-woo, Vice Chairman and CEO of Lotte Holdings, who chaired the board, introduced in his greeting, "Lotte Group is actively discovering and nurturing new businesses to enhance corporate value." Major subsidiaries’ new businesses included ▲the groundbreaking of a domestic mega plant by Lotte Biologics ▲collaboration between Lotte Shopping and global retail tech company Ocado ▲expansion of Lotte Wellfood’s overseas business. He also added explanations about Lotte Innovate’s (formerly Lotte Information & Communication) electric vehicle charging platform and metaverse business.

At the 57th regular shareholders' meeting of Lotte Holdings held on the 28th, Lee Dong-woo, Chairman of the Board and Vice Chairman of Lotte Holdings, is delivering a greeting.
[Photo by Lotte Holdings]

He emphasized efforts to secure competitiveness by expanding AI application in existing businesses. The Vice Chairman said, "Last September, we launched an AI task force (TF) dedicated to AI and are researching ways to introduce various AI business models, not only for digital transformation within group companies but also externally," explaining examples of AI integration in affiliates and AI strategy education activities for CEOs.

He also expressed intentions to improve management efficiency. The Vice Chairman continued, "Lotte has grown through business expansion via mergers and acquisitions (M&A), but as management uncertainty increases, we will focus more on management efficiency through selection and concentration."