SEOUL ¨C Lotte Holdings Co. shareholders voted to leave Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin in his post of director of the holding company, Lotte Group said in a statement, rejecting a third bid by his brother to seize control of the family-run South Korean conglomerate amid a government probe into possible bribery and embezzlement.

Shareholders of the Tokyo-based Lotte unit rejected former Lotte Holdings Vice Chairman Shin Dong-joo¡¯s proposal to oust seven current directors of the board including Shin Dong-bin and Lotte Holdings President Takayuki Tsukuda. Shin Dong-joo, 62, intended to form a new board including himself at the company meeting Saturday, a Lotte Group spokesman, who cannot be named because of company policy, said.

The decision leaves his brother, Dong-bin, 61, at the helm of a retail-to-plastics empire dogged by a government probe that has prompted it to postpone a $4.5 billion initial public offering at its hotel unit, and to scrap a major acquisition by its chemicals arm.

Shin Dong-bin¡¯s victory in the Japan vote Saturday is key because of Lotte Holdings¡¯ shares in other affiliates in the group, which has 89 Korean units with more than 100 trillion won (about $84.62 billion) in assets.

Shin Dong-joo will keep fighting ¡°to normalize¡± the business of Lotte Group and to seek to oust current directors of the board including Dong-bin, SDJ Corp., which represents the older brother, said Saturday in an emailed statement.

Lotte¡¯s identity as a Korean company founded in Japan has also divided the family, with Dong-joo insisting that it is the wish of his father, Shin Kyuk-ho, to consolidate control of the company within Korea. Kyuk-ho, 93, founded Lotte in Japan in 1948 as a maker of chewing gum and sweets. Dong-joo had previously been in charge of the Japanese side of the business, while Dong-bin had control of the group in Korea. Dong-joo was ousted in January 2015, setting the stage for his attempts to mount a comeback he claims has their father¡¯s blessing.

Dong-bin, who has an MBA from Columbia University in New York and a bachelor¡¯s from Tokyo¡¯s Aoyama Gakuin University, last week vowed to complete the IPO of its hotel unit this year. Dong-joo, also an Aoyama Gakuin graduate, has an MBA from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering, and speaks Japanese better than the Korean language.

Shin Kyuk-ho in March lost his board seats at Hotel Lotte Co. and Lotte Confectionary Co. as attempts by Dong-joo to push his younger brother out backfired.

Lotte Group¡¯s businesses include South Korea¡¯s largest department store chain, luxury hotels and the Lotte World Adventure theme park.