Lotte Group, which is mired in a bitter family fight over control of its sprawling business empire, needs about 2.5 trillion won ($2.1 billion) to unwind its complex circular shareholding structure, a report estimated Wednesday.
  

Lotte Group does business both in South Korea and Japan and has 416 cross shareholding arrangements that allow its founder and family members to wield a disproportionate amount of power over the group with a relatively small portion of shares.
  

According to the report by market tracker CEO Score, Lotte Group has to dispose of six affiliates' stakes in Lotte Shopping, Lotte Confectionery and Lotte Chilsung Beverage in order to break its cobweb-like shareholding structure.
  

The six include Dai Heung Industry, Lotte Data Communication and Lotte Engineering & Construction, which currently hold a combined 2.46 trillion won worth of shares in the three key Lotte affiliates known to stand at the center of the group's governance, the report said.
  

The cost is the minimum amount of money estimated to be needed to deal with the governance issue and keep the owner family's control over the group management, the report noted.
  

The report comes a day after Shin Dong-bin, the head of the country's No. 5 conglomerate, apologized over the group's much-criticized succession feud and pledged to make the retail giant's murky governance structure more transparent.
  

Meanwhile, the report also analyzed seven other conglomerates known to have complicated shareholding arrangements, including Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group.
  

Samsung Group, which has tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. under its wing, needs 17.8 trillion won to unwind its circular shareholding structure, the largest among those surveyed. Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest auto giant, came next with 4.74 trillion won, the report showed. (Yonhap)