Lotte Holdings Co. shareholders voted to leave Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin in his post of director of the holding company, Lotte Group said in a statement, rejecting a third bid by his brother to seize control of the family-run South Korean conglomerate amid a government probe into possible bribery and embezzlement.
Shareholders of the Tokyo-based Lotte unit rejected former Lotte Holdings Vice Chairman Shin Dong-joo's proposal to oust seven current directors of the board including Shin Dong-bin and Lotte Holdings President Takayuki Tsukuda. Shin Dong-joo, 62, intended to form a new board including himself at the company meeting Saturday, a Lotte Group spokesman, who cannot be named because of company policy, said.
The decision leaves his brother, Dong-bin, 61, at the helm of a retail-to-plastics empire dogged by a government probe that has prompted it to postpone a $4.5 billion initial public offering at its hotel unit, and to scrap a major acquisition by its chemicals arm.