Lotte to Invest US$44 Billion Over Next Five Years – 25% in Tourism

Date: October 2018

Location: HQ in Seoul, Korea

Name: Lotte Hotels

Who: South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group says it will invest KRW50trn (US$44bn) over the next five years in growing its businesses. Around 25% of the total will go into tourism businesses, potentially buying hotels, reports Bloomberg.

Of the total investment amount, Lotte Group plans to allocate 40 percent toward chemicals and construction, 25 percent to retail, 25 percent to tourism and services, and 10 percent to foods

The group’s chairman was released earlier this month, when his bribery sentence was suspended. Lotte has suggested it will look for mergers and acquisitions across its tourism and related service businesses.

The announcement marks the latest indication that Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin is reviving plans that had been stalled during his jailing. Shin was absent for eight months as Lotte was struggling with a boycott by Chinese consumers.

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate, plans to spend 50 trillion won ($44 billion) over the next five years, the latest sign that the group is stepping up its growth plans after a Seoul court released its chairman earlier this month by suspending his bribery-and-embezzlement sentence.

Lotte, which had about $100 billion of assets as of 2017, is also planning to hire 70,000 workers during the period, mainly for its e-commerce retail business, according to an emailed statement on Tuesday.

Lotte may be moving on from China. The group said it will push into new markets and expand in Indonesia and Vietnam but didn’t mention the world’s second-largest economy at all.

Lotte is also planning to expand chemical facilities in South Korea, Indonesia, and the U.S.
Lotte plans big investments in retail infrastructure to bring brick-and-mortar stores online as sales from traditional outlets like hypermarkets and department stores sag.

THPT Comment: US$44bn, or even 25% of that is an awful lot of money…so it’s all over to Korea then! Where do we think this spending will be? Korea, Asia or further afield?

First Seen: Bloomberg