Lotte to Buy or Build 30 Hotels Overseas by 2020

Lotte Hotel CEO Song Yong-dok on Wednesday announced plans to buy or build more than 30 hotels mostly in the U.S. and Europe.

Song was speaking in New York, where he attended the official renaming of Lotte New York Palace in Manhattan, previously named the New York Palace Hotel.

"We will acquire 33 hotels in New York and other major cities around the globe," Song told Korean reporters. "We have 11 hotels in Korea and six overseas. Our goal is putting a combined 50 hotels under our control by 2020," he added.

Lotte hopes to open hotels in Chicago, London, Los Angeles and Paris. It wants to finance the project by going public in the first half of next year.

Lotte Hotel's projected market cap is estimated at between W13 trillion and W20 trillion (US$1=W1,168).