Proposal for Director's Return at Regular General Meeting
Shin Dong-bin, Lotte Chairman, Faces 10th Vote Battle
Previously Rejected 9 Times at General Meetings
The regular shareholders' meeting of Lotte Holdings, Lotte's Japanese holding company, will be held on the 26th. Shin Dong-ju, former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings and older brother of Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin (chairman of SDJ Corporation), is expected to ignite the management rights dispute once again this year.
According to related industries on the 24th, Shin, the former vice chairman, is reported to have proposed a motion for his return as a director at the Lotte Holdings shareholders' meeting scheduled for the 26th. Shin was abruptly dismissed from his position as vice chairman of Lotte Holdings, the Korea-Japan Lotte holding company, in January 2015, and on July 27 of the same year, he attempted a 'coup d'?tat' to dismiss his younger brother, Chairman Shin Dong-bin, from the Holdings board, backed by the late Shin Kyuk-ho, the founder, but failed.
If a vote is held on Shin's return as vice chairman at this Holdings shareholders' meeting, it will be the 10th vote battle between the Shin brothers since the management rights dispute erupted in 2015.
Previously, from July 2015 until last year's shareholders' meeting, Shin attempted nine times at the Holdings shareholders' meetings to dismiss Chairman Shin and reinstate himself on the board, but was repeatedly rejected. This was due to a lack of trust from shareholders and executives after being dismissed for past violations of compliance management. While serving as CEO of Lotte Service, Shin was dismissed from the director positions at Japan Lotte, Lotte Trading, Lotte Property & Development, and Lotte Real Estate between December 2014 and January of the following year in connection with the so-called 'Pullica' business, which involved photographing product displays at retail stores for marketing purposes. At that time, Shin even filed a lawsuit for damages against the company that dismissed him but lost all cases.
Inside and outside the Lotte Group, the possibility of Shin's revival at this shareholders' meeting is still considered low. This is because Chairman Shin has the support of other shareholders such as Lotte Strategic Investment (10.65%) and the Executive Shareholders' Association (5.96%), excluding Kwangyunsa (28.14%), one of the major shareholders of Holdings. It is still uncertain whether Chairman Shin, who holds 2.69% of Holdings shares, will attend this shareholders' meeting in person. He attended last year's meeting online.
Separately, Shin also made a shareholder proposal ahead of the Lotte Aluminum regular shareholders' meeting in March. When Lotte Aluminum announced at the end of last year that it would spin off a specific business division, Shin proposed to include 'proportional interests of shareholders' in the articles of incorporation as part of the directors' duty of loyalty, arguing that the spin-off could dilute existing shareholders' value and corporate value. The proposal was discussed at the shareholders' meeting but was ultimately rejected.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
