It all started with a chewing gum. A young South Korean business man was selling chewing gum to children in post war Japan at 1948. Shin Kyuk-ho, just graduated from high school started Lotte Group, the giant multinational corporation like that.
Lotte Chewing Gum to Lotte Duty Free
Now Lotte does not just sell chewing gum. It has its’ portion on food and beverages, retailing, chemicals, IT, entertainment, finance and logistic industries. Lotte Duty Free, one of the child companies of it now is available in many airports around the world. In 2017 only, it sales rocket up to $5 billion.
Long-lasting dark days for Lotte Group
Managed by Shin’s second son, Shin Dong Bin, the company faced a lot of crisis since 2016. That year, South Korean prosecutors raided the company. It was suspected of slush funds and breach of trust in transactions within the companies.
In 2017, everything went darker for the corporation. Following the fall of the former president Park Geun-hye, there were some inspection over bribery cases. In which one of it involves Shin Dong-bin. Shin then sentenced for 30 months in February 2018.
South Korean government then made new regulations to prevent the similar case from reappearing. The regulation meant to control big conglomerates such as Lotte and Samsung family. It banned them to take part in financial industry. Lotte was forced to sell Lotte Card, its’ financial company.
With the big prospect of the financial company, several companies took interest in buying it. It is the 5th largest in the country. In 2018, it has 11.2 percent of the market share. Hana Finance, which finally acquired the company, is at 7th place with only 8 percent of the market share. Combined, the two would beat off Shinhan Card that holds the first place with 21 percent.
Not discouraged by the new regulation, Lotte Card heads off its’ plan to go international. It just launched its’ credit card in Vietnam. With that, it is the first Korean firm ever to launch credit card in Southeast Asia. Using Lotte Card, customers can get discounts for transactions in its products such as Lotte Mart, Lotteria, and Angel-in-Us coffee shop.
