Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho
Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho has passed away at the age of 99.
The group said in a statement that he died at 4:30 p.m. at Asan Medical Center in Seoul.
He was the last of the first-generation founders of South Korea's top five conglomerates that include Samsung, Hyundai, LG and SK.
Shin was a self-made business leader who started with a small chewing gum business in the late 1940s in Japan which later became South Korea's fifth-largest conglomerate.
His image, however, was in part tarnished by the family feud over control and charges of embezzlement and breach of trust that sentenced him to four years in prison.
He was allowed to remain free on health issues and since suffered from various diseases of old age, including dementia.
Shin's assets are estimated at well over 1 trillion won.
It was not immediately known how Shin's assets will be inherited by his family.■
<Photo: Yonhap News>
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