Lotte Group has prepared a venue to share the current status of its business restructuring after addressing the liquidity issue that arose last year.
On the afternoon of the 27th, Lotte's major affiliates will hold the 'Lotte Group IR Day' event for institutional investors and securities analysts at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul.
The event will feature representatives from major listed affiliates, including LOTTE Corporation, LOTTE Wellfood, LOTTE Chilsung, LOTTE Chemical, and Lotte Shopping.
On Nov. 28 last year, Lotte Group held a consolidated IR event in Yeouido and explained its self-help measures, including land asset revaluation, sale of low-yield assets, and investment reduction, saying, "There is no problem with liquidity at all."
This IR Day event is an opportunity to share the financial structure improvement and business restructuring status announced by each affiliate last time with the market.
Lotte has been improving its business structure in line with its 'selection and concentration' strategy to eliminate the risk of early redemption of company bonds of around 2 trillion won from LOTTE Chemical at the end of last year.
Lotte is in the process of sorting out businesses and idle assets that do not align with its mid- to long-term strategy, while strengthening its core business and concentrating investments in new sectors such as bio and artificial intelligence (AI) for stable growth.
Last December, Lotte sold its rental car subsidiary LOTTE Rental and liquidated its healthcare business, which was deemed to have low profitability among its new growth engines.
This month, Lotte sold the ATM division (formerly LOTTE PS Net) of Korea Seven, which operates 7-Eleven convenience stores, following the sale of the LOTTE Wellfood factory in Jeungpyeong and the LOTTE Chemical's Pakistani subsidiary, securing more than 600 million won in liquidity.
Lotte Shopping drastically reduced its debt-to-equity ratio through revaluation of real estate assets for the first time in 15 years. The revaluation resulted in a land book value of 17.7 trillion won, an increase of 9.5 trillion won from the previous amount, and the debt-to-equity ratio dropped from 190.4% to 128.6%.
Lotte Shopping also sold inefficient assets such as LOTTE Mart's Suwon Yeongtong branch and LOTTE Super's Yeoui branch last year.
In order to secure financial stability, Lotte Engineering & Construction set a goal of maintaining cash assets of 1 trillion won and managing project financing (PF) contingent liabilities at or below 100% of its equity by the end of this year.
Looking at the business strategies for this year by business sector, the food sector aims to foster global mega brands, expand exports of K-food, and improve domestic revenue.
LOTTE Wellfood will accelerate its entry into the Indian market by integrating its entity LOTTE India and ice cream entity Havmor within the first half of the year.
On Feb. 6, Lotte held a completion ceremony for the new Havmor factory in Pune, India. The new facility represents the first expansion since LOTTE Wellfood acquired Havmor in 2017.
The distribution sector will focus on enhancing grocery competitiveness and restoring market leadership in core business areas.
In particular, it will turn its eyes abroad to strengthen grocery specialty stores in Southeast Asia and increase exports of its private brand (PB).
The chemical sector will focus on fostering high value-added businesses and rationalizing its basic chemical business while expanding hydrogen business through securing clean ammonia overseas.
LOTTE Chemical will reduce the proportion of its basic chemical portfolio, which currently exceeds 60%, to below 30% by 2030 and expand the share of businesses in advanced materials, fine chemicals, battery materials, and hydrogen energy.
Hotel Lotte is pursuing asset lightening measures. It has been considering selling assets among its hotel brands, including 'L7' and 'City.'
Hotel Lotte is also reviewing the withdrawal from overseas duty-free shops amid sluggish demand in the duty-free business.