South Korea's Lotte sells China theme park project for $326 mln, reports MoneyToday

MoneyToday, without identifying its sources, said Lotte recently sold its China-based company running the project to a Shenyang city-run firm. An official at the group's holding company, Lotte Corp , said that the sale process was still underway, but did not provide further details.

South Korean retail conglomerate Lotte Group has sold for about 450 billion won ($326.73 million) its China theme park project that has been stalled due to geopolitical tensions, South Korean online media outlet MoneyToday reported on Thursday.

Relations between the two Asian nations deteriorated sharply in the years following the installation in South Korea of the U.S. anti-missile system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). China had argued that THAAD's powerful radar could peer into its airspace, and reacted by sharply cutting trade and cultural imports from South Korea, although tensions have eased in recent times.

Caught in the heat of the diplomatic crisis, Lotte halted some seven years ago the so-called Lotte Town project to build a shopping mall, a hotel and a theme park in the Chinese northeastern city of Shenyang. MoneyToday, without identifying its sources, said Lotte recently sold its China-based company running the project to a Shenyang city-run firm.

An official at the group's holding company, Lotte Corp , said that the sale process was still underway, but did not provide further details. ($1 = 1,377.2900 won)

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