Lotte group earmarks $44 bln for active fie-year investment

By Lim Chang-won Posted : October 23, 2018, 13:40 Updated : October 23, 2018, 13:40

[Yonhap News Photo]

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SEOUL -- South Korea's fifth largest conglomerate, Lotte, unveiled an aggressive five-year plan to spend some 50 trillion won ($44 billion) on enhancing the group's overall competitiveness, reflecting group chairman Shin Dong-bin's will to reactivate investments which have been delayed during his eight-month absence this year.

Lotte said Tuesday it earmarked some 12 trillion won for group-wide investment next year in an effort to quickly normalize management activities and secure competitiveness in the distribution, food, chemical and tourism businesses.

The group will expand chemical facilities at home and abroad to realize economies of scale and increase cost competitiveness. In its distribution business, Lotte vowed to actively utilize digital technology such as artificial intelligence and big data.

In February, a district court in Seoul sentenced Shin to two years and six months in prison on charges of bribing Choi Soon-sil, the crony of South Korea's ousted ex-president Park Geun-hye. He was released on October 5 when the High Court suspended his sentence.

Shin had sought the realignment of group structure by launching a holding company and through the initial public offering of Hotel Lotte. His imprisonment had clouded prospects for crucial projects, including Lotte Chemical's four trillion won investment through a subsidiary in Malaysia to build a petrochemical complex in Indonesia by 2023.

The group stepped up its presence in Southeast Asia as it became the prime target of China's trade retaliation that began after it allowed US troops to set up a missile shield in its golf course in 2016. Lotte is scaling down its department store business in China following the withdrawal of its troubled hypermarket chain hit by a prolonged consumer boycott.

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