[THE INVESTOR] Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is currently touring the US to meet local business partners and investors, including Hershey Company CEO Michele Buck, industry sources said on May 1.

He left for the US on April 30, his first long-haul overseas trip since a travel ban in relation to a corruption scandal involving the impeached President Park Geun-hye and the nation’s big companies, including Lotte, was lifted on April 17. 

The high-profile meeting between Lotte and Hershey chiefs come after their Chinese joint venture Lotte Shanghai Food suspended operations of a chocolate plant for one month on March 8 amid China’s retaliatory actions against Korea’s THAAD deployment.

At the time, Chinese authorities shut down the plant citing fire safety violations. The plant resumed production on April 1.

During his week-long stay, Shin will also hold a series of meetings with IBM Senior Vice President Bruno Die Leo and some executives of financial companies such as Credit Suisse and JP Morgan.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)