[Photo by Yonhap]

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth largest family-controlled conglomerate with presence in Korea and Japan, may have embarked on the third-generation succession with the corporate joining of Shin Yoo-yeol, the only son of the group chairman Shin Dong-bin.

Yoo-yeol, 34-year-old son of Lotte Group chairman, has joined Lotte Co, a confectionary manufacturer in Japan, in the first half of this year. Details on his job title and role are not known.

Lotte Co. is a subsidiary of Lotte Holdings Co., a multinational holding company headquartered in Tokyo with focus on confectionary processing, hotels and sports management. Lotte Group also has a separate holding entity Lotte Corp in Korea, overseeing businesses spanning from retail to food, chemical, and hotels.

Lotte Co. is more of a symbol to the group as it is the founding company for Lotte.

Yoo-yeol has followed the footsteps of his father. He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan and studied for a master’s degree at Columbia University in the United States. He also worked for Nomura Securities before Lotte like his father.

The younger Shin has kept a low profile and only a few times was seen with his father.

He attended the opening ceremony of Lotte Duty Free’s Ginza branch in Tokyo in 2016, and visited Seoul for the funeral of his grandfather and late Lotte Group chairman Shin Kyuk-ho in January this year.

Separately, Lotte Group chair who had been in Japan since August has returned to Korea. Market watchers suspect Lotte Group will soon make its annual executive reshuffle with the chief’s return.

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