Lotte chairman unseen during Saudi crown prince's stay in Seoul
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, left, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud / Korea Times files
LG chief also absent from Thursday's meeting at Lotte Hotel
By Park Jae-hyuk
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin was not seen during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud's luxurious day-long stay at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul, where he met with Korean business tycoons on Thursday evening at the executive suite which costs 22 million won ($17,000) per night.
Even before the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia came to Korea, there were rumors that the chairmen of Lotte and LG groups might not attend the crown prince's meeting.
The participants in the meeting were Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Chung Euisun, Hanwha Solutions Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won, DL Group Chairman Lee Hae-wook and HD Hyundai CEO Chung Ki-sun.
Although Shin was not on the list of the participants, he was initially expected to greet the Saudi guest in his company-owned hotel.
When the 37-year-old prince visited Korea in 2019, both Lotte and LG chairmen were among the participants in his meeting with Korea's five largest business groups at Seungjiwon, Samsung's guest house for VIPs. LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo was even invited at that time to a banquet among then President Moon Jae-in, the Saudi crown prince and the heads of Korea's four largest business groups, as well as to the crown prince's one-on-one meeting with several conglomerate leaders at Lotte Hotel.
LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, third from left, talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, fourth from left, at Lotte Hotel Seoul, when the crown prince visited Korea in June 2019. Screenshot from Saudi foreign ministry's social media
In response to a question about Shin's whereabouts on Thursday, a Lotte Group spokesman declined to confirm whether or not the chairman met with the Saudi crown prince individually.
An LG Group spokesman confirmed that Koo did not meet with the crown prince this time, although he declined to comment on the reason for the chairman's absence from the meeting.
Some industry officials attributed the absence of the Lotte and LG chairmen from the meeting to a lower likelihood of the two groups joining Neom, a project initiated by the crown prince back in 2017. The $500 billion project aims to develop eco-friendly and smart cities covering a total of 26,500 square kilometers in Saudi Arabia's northwestern Tabuk Province near the Red Sea.
However, Lotte Fine Chemical signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi investment ministry during Thursday's Korea-Saudi Investment Forum at the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry building in Seoul, to build a high-tech chemical manufacturing plant in the Middle Eastern country. The signing ceremony came a week after Lotte Chemical CEO Kim Gyo-hyun and Lotte Fine Chemical CEO Kim Yong-seok met with Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih, who came to Korea prior to the crown prince's trip.
In addition, Lotte E&C signed a contract with S-Oil to participate in the Aramco-owned refiner's 9 trillion won ($6.7 billion) “Shaheen” project, aimed at building Korea's largest petrochemical plant in Ulsan. Shaheen means falcon in Arabic.
LG Chem CEO Shin Hak-cheol also reportedly met with the Saudi investment minister last week.