Lotte Group’s hotel unit is planning an initial public offering that may fetch as much as 5.7 trillion won ($4.8 billion) in what could be South Korea’s biggest IPO ever.
Hotel Lotte Co., the lodgings and duty-free-sales unit of the retail giant, plans an offering of 47.9 million shares at a range of 97,000 won to 120,000 won apiece, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. That would value the company as much as 16.4 trillion won.
Based on the high end of the price range, the sale would exceed the record 4.9 trillion won raised in Samsung Life Insurance Co.’s sale in 2010 and trump any other IPO completed so far this year globally. The offering could also test investor perceptions about Korean corporate governance as Lotte has been embroiled in a public feud involving the chairman, his older brother and their father over control of the group since last year.
Of the total being offered, the company plans to sell 34.2 million in new shares, while the rest will come from existing shareholders. Daewoo Securities Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch are arranging the IPO.
The Korea Economic Daily reported details of the IPO terms on Wednesday.
(Updates with valuation of company in second paragraph.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Sohee Kim in Seoul at skim847@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chua Kong Ho at kchua6@bloomberg.net, Young-Sam Cho, K. Oanh Ha
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