Shin Dong-ju, former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings Japan who had challenged his younger brother in a high-profile sibling feud over control of South Korea’s fifth largest conglomerate that blew over last year to make most of the Shin family members face prosecution probe, came again to haunt Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin by seeking a court injunction to stop the group’s starbursting plan from going through.

Barun Law LLC acting on behalf of Shin Dong-ju said on Monday that it asked a Seoul court to bar the reorganization plan the boards of Lotte Shopping Co., Lotte Confectionery Co., Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co., and Lotte Food Co. had approved from going to shareholders for a final vote.

The four Lotte companies held separate board meetings on April 26 and voted for the plan to break up their business structure into holding and business companies. After the split-off, the four holding entities would come under Hotel Lotte and make it a sole parent entity to simplify the current multi-layered cross-sharing based ownership structure.

The law firm argued that Lotte Shopping’s values have been overestimated, which would hurt the values of stakes held by shareholders of Lotte Confectionery, Lotte Chilsung Beverage, and Lotte Food from the demerger.

Lotte Group claimed the financial appraisal had been carried out fairly by outside accountant and accused Shin of trying to interrupt the reorganization scheme. It vowed legal counteraction.

By Sohn Il-seon

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