Scandal-hit Lotte vows 'reborn' image, investment drive

The chairman of scandal-hit retail giant Lotte Group on Tuesday vowed to restore the company's image and promised a multi-billion dollar investment and job creation drive over the next five years. Shin Dong-Bin, together with his father and brother, has been indicted on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement following a lengthy corruption probe. The indictment came on top of a bitter, and very public feud between Shin and his older brother for control of the country's fifth-largest family-run conglomerate. "I deeply apologise for creating concern among the people over the prosecutors' probe, as the fight over managerial rights has not yet been settled", Shin told a televised press conference. He then bowed deeply before the TV cameras. The Seoul-based group, founded in Tokyo in 1948, has a vast network of businesses in South Korea and Japan including department stores, hotels and processed food, with combined assets valued at more than $90 billion. "We have fallen short of people's hopes and expectations," Shin said as he outlined a business plan aimed at boosting the national economy. "Although market conditions are difficult here and abroad, we will invest 40 trillion won ($35 billion) and newly hire 70,000 workers over the next five years", he said. The group will also reactivate a plan for an initial public offering of its hotel unit. Hotel Lotte, the country’s biggest operator of hotels and duty-free stores, shelved a potential $4.5 billion IPO it had planned for July because of a corruption probe into the unit. Proceeds from the IPO could help sort out the group's convoluted ownership structure based on complicated webs of cross share-holdings among subsidiaries and founding family members. Shin promised to "create a new Lotte" that would be "reborn" as a company with a transparent governance structure.