The former vice president of Tokyo-based Lotte Holdings on Friday said he will push for the listing of the de facto holding company of Lotte Group on the Japanese bourse and give its shares to all employees if he becomes the new chief.

Shin Dong-joo, the oldest of 94-year-old Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho’s two sons, made the offer to win support from employees ahead of an emergency shareholders meeting he convened to fire the current board of directors and reelect new executives. 

The 62-year-old has been locking horns with his younger brother, Shin Dong-bin, after being stripped of his executive titles at three of Lotte’s Japanese affiliates in early 2015. After a months-long succession feud, Dong-bin took control of the nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate last year.

In a press conference held in Tokyo on Friday, Shin claimed Lotte Holdings is valued at 11 trillion won ($8.91 billion), estimating the share price at 2.5 million won.

If employees at Lotte Holdings accept Shin’s offer to disband the employee shareholders association and receive 1,000 shares each, one could earn some 2.5 billion won, his advisor Min Yoo-sung said in a separate meeting with reporters in Seoul.

Although the elder son claims the Lotte Group founder handpicked him as his successor, he faces an uphill battle to take control of the retail giant as he holds only about 30 percent of Lotte Holdings’ shares. Without support from the employee shareholders association that owns 27.8 percent of shares, he cannot replace the current board of directors.

Lotte Group immediately hit back, saying Shin’s offer is “unrealistic.”

“(Shin’s offer) is a hastily prepared gimmick to win the votes of the employee shareholder association ahead of the upcoming shareholders meeting,” a senior Lotte official said.

The founder and his family members have come under fire for exerting uncontrolled power over the retail giant with a meager stake, tarnishing the group’s corporate image with the nasty succession brawl.

Earlier this month, South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said the founder and immediate family members of Lotte Group own just a 2.4-percent stake in the companies they run, which include food, leisure, construction and chemical businesses. (Yonhap)