Lotte's Shin Dong-bin Personally Oversees 'Painful Finger' Hotel... Heads to Busan on the 17th

'Direct Hit from COVID-19' Boosts Hotels
Lotte Holdings Injects 55.5 Billion Won into Hotels

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group (photo), is heading to Busan to support the hotel subsidiary facing management difficulties.

According to the distribution industry on the 16th, Chairman Shin plans to attend the opening event of 'Signiel Busan' located in Haeundae on the 17th and tour the hotel. Lotte Group's Vice Chairmen Hwang Kak-kyu and Song Yong-duk will accompany Chairman Shin. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Park Yang-woo is also expected to attend the event.

Signiel Busan, a 6-star hotel, is located on the 3rd to 19th floors of 'LCT Landmark Tower,' the tallest building in the Busan area. It is a luxury hotel appearing in the Haeundae area for the first time in 7 years, with a total of 260 rooms.

Chairman Shin's direct attendance at the Signiel Busan opening event is interpreted as reflecting concerns about the hotel industry, which has been depressed due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis.

In fact, Lotte Holdings recently injected funds by acquiring all Lotte Food shares worth approximately 55.5 billion KRW, previously held by Hotel Lotte and Busan Lotte Hotel. As a result, Lotte Holdings' stake in Lotte Food increased to 36.37%.

Meanwhile, there were speculations that Chairman Shin would attend the Japanese Lotte Holdings shareholders' meeting at the end of this month, but choosing to go to Busan has made this difficult. This shareholders' meeting is known to be the first since Chairman Shin took office as chairman of Japanese Lotte Holdings in April.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.