Lotte Group's heir apparent joins Japan holding firm's board

Shin Yoo-yeol, the heir apparent to Lotte Group, has been elected to the board of directors of its Japanese holding company, which serves as a link between the Korean and Japanese operations of the retail-to-chemical conglomerate.

His joining in the board of Lotte Holdings Co. is expected to accelerate the group’s management succession to the third generation of the founding family, solidifying his position as a senior leader of the group.

At a general shareholder meeting on Wednesday, Japan-based Lotte Holdings gave the nod to the junior Shin’s appointment as an inside director on its board. He is the eldest son of Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-Bin.

Lotte Holdings is controlled by Japanese property developer Kwang Yoon Sa, wholly owned by Lotte’s founding family.

It is at the top of the group’s ownership structure. The Japanese holding company controls Korea-based Hotel Lotte Co. that is then the largest shareholder of Korean holding firm Lotte Corp., the parent of Korean units focused on confectionary, chemical and retail businesses.

The junior Shin has been leading Lotte Corp.’s future growth office and Lotte Biologics Co.’s global strategy office as executive director since late last year.

His appointment to the executive positions at the two Korean units last December marked the first time that a third-generation family member of the conglomerate came to the fore.

The 38-year-old heir apparent has been groomed for top manager roles, mostly in Japan.

In February of this year, he was elected to the board of Lotte Biologics, a pharmaceutical company for contract development and manufacturing.

Early this month, he became a shareholder of Lotte Corp. with the purchase of a 0.01% stake in the Korean holding company. 

Write to Sun A Lee at suna@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.