Lotte Shopping Holds First Regular Shareholders' Meeting After Leadership Change... Division Heads and CFO Take Center Stage

Lotte Shopping Holds 56th Regular General Meeting of Shareholders
Hyunseok Jeong, Woochul Cha, and Jaechul Lim Appointed as Inside Directors
Strengthening Business Unit-Centered Management Accountability

On March 20, Lotte Shopping's 56th Regular General Meeting of Shareholders is taking place at Lotte Retail Academy in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Lotte Shopping

Lotte Shopping held its 56th regular general meeting of shareholders at Lotte Retail Academy in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on March 20, passing all six agenda items—including the appointment of directors and amendments to the articles of incorporation—as originally proposed. This shareholders' meeting was the first official event since the management reshuffle at the end of last year, held approximately three months after the leadership change. The market's attention was focused on this event as it served as a litmus test to evaluate the new management's execution capabilities, rather than their strategies.

The core of this board restructuring lies in simultaneously placing the heads of Lotte Shopping’s business units and the chief financial officer at the forefront. Lotte Shopping newly appointed Hyunseok Jeong, Head of the Department Store Business Unit; Woochul Cha, Head of the Mart and Supermarket Business Unit; and Jaechul Lim, Head of the Finance Division, as inside directors, thereby strengthening a business unit-centered management accountability system.

Hyunseok Jeong is recognized as a field-oriented manager, having served as head of the Outlet Business Division and as a key store manager. His strength lies in his past experience leading a turnaround in performance as CEO of Uniqlo Korea. Similarly, Woochul Cha proved his profit-focused management capabilities by spearheading restructuring and overseas business expansion as CEO of Lotte GRS. Meanwhile, Jaechul Lim has led financial structure improvements and is currently effectively serving as the company’s chief financial officer (CFO).

This personnel change is particularly notable for the further elevation of the finance function. With Lim joining the board, financial strategy has been placed at the core of decision-making. This aligns with the dual structure of "greater business unit autonomy plus strengthened central financial control," which has taken shape after the dissolution of the distribution group headquarters. It reflects the company's intention to expand the autonomy of its business units outwardly, while maintaining centralized, integrated management of financial matters.

Lotte Shopping held its 56th regular shareholders' meeting on the 20th at the Lotte Retail Academy in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jaehee Kwon.

The outside board was also reinforced. The addition of Mi Young Woo, an artificial intelligence (AI) expert with experience at Microsoft and Dell, and Sehoon Park, a marketing specialist and former CEO of Hanwha Galleria, has bolstered both digital responsiveness and strategic capabilities.

These changes are also linked to recent business performance trends. In 2025, Lotte Shopping posted consolidated sales of 13.7384 trillion won and operating profit of 547 billion won. While sales declined by 1.8% compared to the previous year, operating profit increased by 15.6%. Net income for the period turned positive, reaching 73.6 billion won, signaling a recovery in profitability. The company’s financial indicators have also improved, with reductions in both borrowings and the debt ratio.

However, the net borrowings—still exceeding 10 trillion won—remain a point of concern. Accordingly, analysts expect the new management to continue a "finance-centered management" approach, focusing on cost efficiency and profit improvement rather than on business expansion. Whether the board restructuring, which places the chief financial officer at the forefront, will simply strengthen management oversight or actually lead to substantial improvements in profitability is seen as a key point to watch going forward.

Lotte Shopping stated, "With the replacement of outside directors whose terms have expired and the completion of the new board composition, we will further solidify our responsible management system."

Meanwhile, all six agenda items presented at the shareholders' meeting—(▲Approval of the 56th financial statements ▲Amendments to the articles of incorporation ▲Appointment of directors ▲Appointment of Mi Young Woo as Audit Committee member ▲Appointment of outside director Sehoon Park as Audit Committee member ▲Approval of directors’ remuneration limit)—were approved.

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