Homeplus has signed sale contracts for two of its closed stores worth 170 billion won ($113 million), but Meritz Financial Group, the retailer's largest creditor, is insisting the proceeds go entirely toward recovering its outstanding debt, sources said.
Kim Nam-geun, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the party's Euljiro Committee, told reporters Thursday after attending back-to-back meetings — one with MBK Partners and Meritz executives on Homeplus's rehabilitation and another with the head of the National Pension Service — that 19 of the chain's closed stores are owned by Homeplus itself, and that buyers have emerged for three of them.
"Of those three, sale contracts have been signed for two, worth about 170 billion won," Kim said. "Homeplus asked Meritz to allow some of that to be used as emergency operating funds, but Meritz is taking what Homeplus considers an unreasonable position — that it will take all of the proceeds." He said the dispute has left Homeplus struggling to secure emergency operating funds.
Kim added that Meritz had agreed to the store sales on the condition that rehabilitation proceedings move forward, and that it intends to keep claiming all future sale proceeds as debt repayment. "That is something that will need to be discussed going forward," he said.
Meritz told media that "the final sale contract has not yet been concluded, as it remains a conditional agreement."
At Thursday's meetings, the Democratic Party called on majority shareholder MBK Partners and Meritz to promptly secure emergency operating funds.
Committee Chairman Min Byeong-deok said about 100 billion won in emergency operating funds is needed, and respectfully requested that Meritz and MBK executives fulfill the social responsibilities they must bear as creditors and investors.
After the meetings, Kim told reporters that the National Assembly would "definitely hold a Homeplus hearing" and that the process would "clearly establish whether MBK and Meritz deliberately pushed the company toward liquidation." The Democratic Party also raised questions about whether MBK had fulfilled its obligations as a fund manager entrusted with national pension assets.
Min said the National Pension Service has committed about 2.5 trillion won to 11 private equity funds managed by MBK, with a significant portion still under management even after some has been recovered. "Given the repeated conduct of MBK and the ongoing controversy over its alleged violations of investor protection obligations, there are continued calls for a comprehensive review — both of recovering existing investments and of whether it remains appropriate for MBK to retain its status as a delegated fund manager," he said.
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