South Korean retail giant Lotte said Tuesday that it would hold nondeal roadshows in New York and Boston, US until Wednesday, local time. They will be the conglomerate’s first overseas events since its chairman, Shin Dong-bin, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for bribery and embezzlement in February.

An NDR is an investment-focused event where executives hold discussions with current and potential investors. Nothing is offered for sale.

Arranged by Citigroup Global Markets Securities, the event will be led by Lotte Shopping CEO Kang Hee-tae, along with officials in charge of digital, finance, IR and overseas business divisions, the company said. It comes nine months after the NDR schedule came to a halt.

The group normally holds four rounds of NDR each year. It is held in Hong Kong and Singapore in February, May and August and in the US in December. 

Lotte Shopping, which runs Lotte Department and Lotte mart, has 16 percent of its stocks owned by foreign investors, according to the firm. 

During the US visit, Lotte Shopping officials will visit global e-commerce giant Amazon’s headquarters to have a meeting with top officials and hear their business strategies and know-how. Amazon’s brick and mortar stores Amazon Go and Amazon Books as well as Whole Foods Market are also on the list for visits, the company said.

They will also visit the Seattle headquarters of Nordstrom department store chain, and inspect popular distribution channels of cosmetics store chain Ulta and IT device store chain B8ta. 

“Although the main purpose of our US visit is to meet with foreign investors, we will also closely look into large-scale distribution channels in the US and find out more about the stories behind their solid growth base,” said a Lotte Shopping official. 

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)