Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin on Wednesday was evicted from his executive position at Kojyunsya -- the virtual holding company of Lotte Group in Korea and Japan -- which could deal a blow to his plans of being the sole leader of the 90 trillion won ($78 billion) business enterprise.

He was replaced by Tetsu Isobe as a new board director, while his elder brother SDJ Corporation chairman Shin Dong-joo was appointed representative director of Kojyunsya at the five-member shareholders meeting in Tokyo.

Kojyunsya owns 28.1 percent of Lotte Holdings, which -- along with several other affiliates -- owns more than 99 percent of Hotel Lotte in Korea, which is again at the pinnacle of the complicated cross-shareholding structure of the 80-plus Lotte affiliates here. Such a cyclical shareholding system is designed to cement the founding Shin clan’s grip on the group’s business operations despite having less than 2 percent stake in the entire company.

Dong-bin’s abrupt dismissal has been attributed to Dong-joo who has a higher stake of 50 percent in Kojyunsya, as against his younger brother’s 38.8 percent.

The dramatic dethroning also took place less than two months after Dong-joo was dismissed from all managerial positions at Lotte Holdings’ shareholders meeting on Aug. 17 spearheaded by Dong-bin.