Lotte Becomes Third Largest Shareholder of Socar... "Expanding the Mobility Ecosystem"

Acquirer Lotte Rental Acquires 13.9% Stake in Socar for 183.2 Billion KRW
"Enhancing Mobility Convenience and Providing Differentiated Customer Experience"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Lotte is becoming the third largest shareholder of Socar, the No.1 ride-sharing platform in Korea. Through this, they plan to actively expand the mobility ecosystem.

On the 7th, Lotte Group held a board meeting and announced that it resolved to acquire a 13.9% stake in Socar (4,055,375 shares) for approximately 183.2 billion KRW. The acquisition will be made by Lotte Rental, Lotte Group’s car rental subsidiary. Lotte will become the third largest shareholder following Lee Jae-woong, former CEO of Socar and the largest shareholder, and SK Co., the second largest shareholder.

Lotte Rental stated, "Through this equity investment, we expect to secure a strong growth engine by expanding the mobility ecosystem," and added, "By leveraging Lotte Rental’s rental and asset management capabilities and Socar’s mobility information technology (IT) capabilities, we plan to enhance convenience of movement and provide differentiated customer experiences through strategic collaboration."

They continued, "We are considering jointly promoting the creation of a future mobility business ecosystem including electric vehicles, charging-linked parking, and autonomous driving, and plan to introduce innovative services that transcend industry boundaries through strategic collaboration at the Lotte Group level in logistics, distribution, and membership."

They also emphasized, "We will actively pursue various business partnerships that utilize each party’s competitiveness and generate synergy. Priority will be given to areas where mutual synergy can be created, such as vehicle maintenance, management, car washing, B2C (business-to-consumer) used car sales, and micromobility."

Meanwhile, Lotte has previously entered the urban air mobility (UAM) business and is also working on building an integrated mobility platform. Lotte Holdings and Lotte Rental are cooperating with the goal of providing differentiated transportation by connecting ground-based networks with aviation. The strategy is to strengthen the mobility platform by linking ground transportation, tourism, shopping infrastructure, and air transportation.

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