Lotte's Shin Dong-bin to sell 1.15% stake in Lotte Shopping for liquidity

Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin plans to sell 324,100 shares, or 1.15%, of Lotte Shopping to secure cash liquidity.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's DART system, the sale will run over 29 days from Aug. 21 to Sept. 18 through on-market transactions. Based on Tuesday's closing price of 130,400 won ($88) per share, the sale is valued at approximately 42.3 billion won.

Shin previously held a 10.23% stake in Lotte Shopping. After the sale, his stake will decrease to 9.08%.

Shin said the reason for the share sale was to "secure liquidity."

Some in the retail industry speculate the move is aimed at raising funds to cover inheritance taxes. Lotte founder and honorary chairman Shin Kyuk-ho, who died in January 2020, left behind domestic shares and real estate worth around 1 trillion won, which is estimated to have generated hundreds of billions of won in inheritance tax obligations.

The disclosure was made under the Capital Markets Act, which requires executives or major shareholders of listed companies to report planned transactions at least 30 days in advance when the transaction involves 1 percent or more of total issued shares or is valued at 5 billion won or more.