Lee Young-jun, the head of Lotte Chemical, said on the 20th, "We will continue to push for rationalizing our business structure and, at the same time, strengthen our financial soundness."
At the 50th regular shareholders meeting of Lotte Chemical held at Lotte World Tower in Songpa District, Seoul, that day, Lee said, "This year, a difficult business environment is expected to persist due to heightened geopolitical risks in the Middle East and the resulting instability in raw material supply," adding the remarks above.
Lotte Chemical plans to pursue three key strategies as a way to secure fundamental competitiveness. Lee said, "We will scale down commodity petrochemical functions and decisively rationalize businesses whose competitiveness has continued to weaken," and added, "Although initial operating burdens are expected with the start-up of the Indonesia project, we will strengthen financial soundness by thoroughly executing investments within EBITDA and shifting to a cash flow–centered approach."
Next, by organically integrating the new complex in Indonesia with the global hub in Malaysia, the company aims to maximize operating synergies and, by 2030, expand the share of functional materials to over 60% while actively developing future businesses.
The company will also move to secure core materials technologies early by restructuring the research and development (R&D) roadmap and building an academia–industry cluster. Lee said, "We will accelerate the transition from a structure centered on commodity petrochemicals to a specialty chemical corporations that combines profitability and growth."
At the Lotte Chemical shareholders meeting that day, Lee Young-jun, the representative director and head of the chemical division, and Seong Nak-seon, head of the Financial Innovation Division (CFO), were reappointed as inside directors, while Ju Woo-hyun, head of the Advanced Materials Business, was newly appointed as a director. Including Chairman Shin Dong-bin, who has served as a registered director of Lotte Chemical since 2004, the four-person structure will continue.
As outside directors, Directors Son Byung-hyuk and Oh Yoon were reappointed. As an outside director to serve on the Audit Committee, Choi Won-kyung, a partner accountant at Sunghyun Accounting Corporation, was newly appointed, and Director Oh Yoon was reappointed as an audit Commissioner.
Subsequently, all agenda items were approved as originally proposed, including ▲ approval of financial statements ▲ amendments to the articles of incorporation due to revisions to the Commercial Act ▲ approval of the limit on directors' compensation. The agenda item included in the approval of financial statements to pay 500 won in cash dividends per common share also passed.