Partnership with Qatar group targets MLFF expansion

Companies to hold priority talks on technology adoption and new projects

Mobility sales growth goal set at 3x by 2030

A view of Lotte Innovate's operations [Lotte Innovate]
A view of Lotte Innovate's operations [Lotte Innovate]

Lotte Innovate is joining forces with a Qatar-based investment group to push into overseas mobility markets, targeting a multi-lane free-flow tolling project covering 34 highways in Malaysia.

Lotte Innovate said Friday it had signed a strategic partnership agreement with Qatar's Protocol Capital Group (PCG) to cooperate on overseas multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) tolling projects. The strategy combines Lotte Innovate's domestic traffic system expertise with PCG's financing and project development capabilities to expand in the global mobility market.

PCG is a Doha-based group specializing in financing, investment attraction and project development. It leads consortium formation and project execution in global infrastructure and works with technology partners across fields including smart cities and smart transportation.

Under the agreement, the two companies will hold priority consultations whenever they seek to adopt relevant technologies or pursue new projects. The arrangement is designed to build a cooperative relationship spanning initial project review and technology application through to full project development. The companies also plan to look beyond individual project-level collaboration and jointly identify business opportunities in the global transportation infrastructure market from a medium- to long-term perspective.

Lotte Innovate plans to accelerate its entry into Malaysia's MLFF market on the back of the agreement. Malaysia is pursuing a project to upgrade its toll collection systems across approximately 211 toll plazas spanning 34 highways and a total length of 2,035 kilometers.

MLFF is a system that allows vehicles to pay tolls without stopping at a toll booth or moving into a designated lane. It is infrastructure that upgrades toll collection to suit road-driving conditions, requiring the ability to build an integrated system covering vehicle recognition, traffic data processing, fare settlement and operations management.

Lotte Innovate said it aims to meet that demand by drawing on the technology and system-building experience it has accumulated through domestic transportation infrastructure projects.

The two companies are also broadening the scope of their global cooperation. PCG's key target regions for project development include Southeast Asia — including Malaysia — as well as Latin America, Central Asia (CIS) and North Africa.

The two sides plan to jointly identify MLFF project opportunities in each region by taking into account local transportation infrastructure needs and market conditions, and will work to define cooperation models suited to local business environments. They also outlined a blueprint to link Lotte Innovate's technology and system-building capabilities with PCG's global network and financing capacity.

Meanwhile, Lotte Innovate described the agreement as part of its medium- to long-term mobility growth strategy. At a press briefing held Monday on the sidelines of the ITS World Congress in Gangneung, the company set a target of tripling its mobility business sales by 2030.

"This agreement will serve as an important opportunity to extend the technology and project execution capabilities we have built in the domestic transportation infrastructure sector into global markets," a Lotte Innovate official said. "We will use the cooperative framework between the two companies to develop concrete business opportunities in Malaysia and other overseas markets, translate them into sales growth, and strengthen our competitiveness in the global mobility business."


chami@heraldcorp.com