[Graphic News] Lotte most active in M&A

Korea’s retail giant Lotte Group topped the ranking for making mergers and acquisitions deals over the past six years, data showed Tuesday.

According to corporate tracker CEO Score, Lotte took over a total of 21 companies through M&A deals from 2010 to 2015. The size of the deals amounted to $6.5 billion, accounting for 20 percent of total M&A deals made by the top 30 conglomerates.

Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin has aggressively pushed for the deals since 2004, completing 36 such deals so far with an aim to reach 200 trillion won ($173 billion) in sales by 2020.

Hyundai Motor Group stood at No. 2 with $4.6 billion, followed by SK Group with $3.8 billion and steelmaker POSCO with $3.5 billion.