롯데그룹 내 한 관계자는 코리아헤럴드와의 인터뷰를 통해 최근 언론보도로 드러난 인수 철회 면세점은 미국 플로리다주 헐리우드에 위치한 ‘듀티프리아메리카’라고 밝혔다.
호텔롯데는 최근까지 1조7천억원 규모의 미국 면세점 인수 협상을 벌였으나 사정당국의 수사와 그에 따른 호텔롯데 상장 불발 이후 실무 작업을 접은 것으로 전해졌다.
만약 이 M&A가 성사됐다면 롯데면세점은 목표였던 ‘세계 1위’를 턱밑까지 추격할 수 있었다.
롯데면세점은 지난 2014년 기준(무디리포트 집계) 듀프리(스위스·48억5천만 유로)·DFS그룹(미국·37억5천만 유로)에 이어 세계 3위 면세점(33억4천600만 유로)인데, 1위와의 규모 차이가 약 2조원에 불과하기 때문이다.
면세점뿐 아니라 호텔롯데는 각각 프랑스와 미국 유명 호텔 M&A를 추진해 거의 성사 단계에 이르렀지만, 이 역시 비자금 수사와 증시 상장 무산 이후 포기했다.
<관련 영문 기사>
[Exclusive] Lotte drops bid for Duty Free Americas amid widening probe
Lotte Group has given up its plans to acquire Duty Free Americas Inc., the largest duty-free operator in the U.S., amid the widening probe that had earlier forced the South Korean retail giant to withdraw plans to list its hotel unit, The Korea Herald found Thursday.
“The group has effectively given up on the potential acquisition of a U.S. duty-free operator worth 1.7 trillion won ($1.5 billion), now that the initial public offering of its hotel unit has been indefinitely delayed due to the ongoing investigations,” said a Lotte official on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. duty-free operator that Lotte had sought to acquire was Duty Free Americas Inc. based in Hollywood, Florida, the official said. Lotte Duty Free runs the group’s duty-free business under Hotel Lotte.
A DFA spokesperson could not be reached for comment when contacted by The Korea Herald via phone and email.
From last Friday, the Seoul Central Prosecutor’s Office raided Lotte’s headquarters and its core affiliates including Hotel Lotte, which operates the group’s hotel and duty-free unit, over alleged embezzlement and slush fund creation.
The ongoing investigation led Hotel Lotte to indefinitely postpone its pursuit of an initial public offering valued at up to $4.5 billion, derailing its stated plans to use the new funds generated via the IPO to aggressively expand its hotels and duty-free business globally.
Hotel Lotte had disclosed in an earlier filing that that it would set aside at least 1.79 trillion won of the new funds that would have been generated through the IPO to actively pursue mergers and acquisitions of overseas hotels, resorts and duty-free operators.
Although Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin on Wednesday told the media that Hotel Lotte would refile for an IPO again by the end of this year, the group said the move should be taken as more of “a show of determination” rather than a concrete promise, given current circumstances.
If the acquisition of DFA had been successful, it would have enabled Lotte’s duty-free operator to expand its business beyond Asia and into the Western hemisphere, drawing closer to its stated goal of becoming the world’s second-largest duty-free operator.
According to The Moodie Report’s 2015 Top 25 Travel Retailers rankings, Dufry was the world’s No. 1 duty-free operator with sales of 4.85 billion euros ($5.46 billion) in 2014, followed by the DFS Group with sales of $4.5 billion and Lotte Duty Free with sales of around $4.23 billion.
Founded in 1983, Duty Free Americas Inc. operates more than 150 tax-free outlets in major airports and border crossings in the United States and elsewhere including Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
DFA is owned and led by the Miami-based Falic Group, with Jerome Falic as the firm’s chief executive officer. The U.S.-based duty-free operator ranked 12th in the 2015 Moodie Report with sales of around $1.25 billion won in 2014.
In addition to its abandonment of the U.S. duty-free acquisition deal, Hotel Lotte said it has given up on plans to acquire or assume operational rights to two major hotels each in France and the U.S., among other deals under review.
“Among other deals, we had made the most significant progress on a deal with two hotels in France and the U.S. As of now, we are unable to continue reviewing such M&As, given current circumstances,” a Hotel Lotte spokesperson said.
The stock market debut of Hotel Lotte had drawn interest from the global hotel industry, as many viewed its IPO as an attempt to expand its presence in the market.
Analysts abroad, however, said that Lotte needs to clarify its capital flow before seeking overseas expansion.
“After the speculation swirling around Anbang’s reasons for pulling out of the bidding for Starwood Hotel & Resorts, the influx of money from the East has been viewed with increased suspicion and the veracity supplied by the stock markets will make a more convincing case of their worth as the group looks to buy across the globe,” wrote Katherine Doggrell, the deputy editor of Hotel Analyst, a U.K.-based online media.
By Sohn Ji-young (
jys@heraldcorp.com)
