Deals
Lotte Scraps $4.5 Billion Hotel IPO as Probes Deepen Crisis
- Decision comes day after group signaled deal would be shelved
- Deal could have been world’s biggest IPO so far this year
Shoppers walk on staircases at the Lotte World Mall in Seoul.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Lotte Group shelved what may have been a $4.5 billion initial public offering, the world’s biggest so far this year, for its hotel unit after widening investigations pushed the South Korean conglomerate deeper into crisis.
Hotel Lotte Co. decided to hold off on the IPO after talking to arrangers and considering both “internal and external issues,” the company said in a statement in Seoul Monday, a day after the parent group signaled the deal would be shelved. Despite the decision, the company will proceed with plans to expand its duty-free business, it said.