This article appeared on Signal, the capital market compass, at 5:16 p.m. on June 15, 2026.
Five major affiliates of JoongAng Group, ranging from JTBC and Contentree to Megabox, have filed with the court to begin corporate rehabilitation proceedings. As credit ratings fell one after another in the wake of JTBC's default and concerns over a liquidity crunch spread across the group, the affiliates have in effect moved into court receivership together. With the combined size of bonds maturing this year for JTBC and Contentree JoongAng alone exceeding 500 billion won, the group had pushed to secure liquidity through the sale of Phoenix JoongAng and its headquarters buildings, among other measures, but ultimately ran into crisis.
According to the legal and investment banking (IB) industries Monday, the Seoul Bankruptcy Court assigned the rehabilitation filing cases of JoongAng Group's major affiliates — JTBC, Contentree JoongAng, Megabox JoongAng and JoongAng P&I — along with holding company JoongAng Holdings, to Rehabilitation Settlement Division 2 (presiding judge Chung Joon-young). Three days after JTBC failed to repay 20.6 billion won in securitized borrowings on June 12, the liquidity crisis spread across the group, leading to the joint rehabilitation filings. JoongAng Ilbo decided to pursue a workout, a corporate financial restructuring.
The securitized borrowings and corporate bonds of Contentree JoongAng, Megabox JoongAng and JTBC maturing this month total about 293 billion won. Extending the period to the end of the year, the figure far exceeds 500 billion won. Including the corporate bonds of JoongAng Ilbo and SLL JoongAng, which did not file for rehabilitation this time, more than 600 billion won in maturities comes due this year. With bond maturities ranging from as little as several hundred million won to as much as several hundred billion won falling due each month, the liquidity crunch is seen to have accelerated.
"JoongAng Group faces an overall heavy financial burden due to continued poor operating performance at major affiliates such as Contentree JoongAng, JTBC and JoongAng Ilbo," said Kim Na-yeon, senior research fellow at NICE Investors Service's corporate evaluation division. "As of the end of last year, the group's combined total borrowings stood at 2.8 trillion won, an excessive level relative to its cash-generating capacity."
In particular, the simultaneous downgrades of major affiliates' credit ratings following JTBC's default served as the trigger for this situation. NICE Investors Service cut JTBC's long-term credit rating to CCC from BBB, and then adjusted JoongAng Ilbo's credit rating to BB- from BBB. Korea Investors Service lowered the credit rating of SLL JoongAng, a subsidiary of Contentree JoongAng, to BB from BBB, and JoongAng Ilbo to BB from BBB-. It also downgraded the commercial paper and short-term bond ratings of Contentree JoongAng and Megabox JoongAng by two notches each, to C from B+. Korea Ratings likewise lowered the credit ratings of JTBC, Contentree JoongAng and Megabox JoongAng.
Hong Jung-do, vice chairman of JoongAng Group, bowed his head at a press conference Monday. "We did our best to stabilize management, but due to the worsening external economic conditions and the liquidity crunch caused by the credit rating downgrades, we had no choice but to make an unavoidable decision," he said.
JoongAng Group had indeed pushed to sell Phoenix JoongAng and core real estate assets to inject funds. It had selected Koramco Asset Trust as the preferred bidder to securitize three buildings — the JoongAng Ilbo Building and the JTBC Building in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, and a studio in Ilsan, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province — but is known not to have yet received the sale proceeds. The size of the transaction is around 550 billion won.
Financial investors (FIs) who invested in JoongAng Group content, among other things, are on alert as uncertainty over recovery has grown. The banking sector is also not free from JoongAng Group's rehabilitation situation. According to financial circles, as of June 13, the outstanding loan claims of four companies — JoongAng Holdings, Contentree JoongAng, Megabox JoongAng and JoongAng P&I — totaled 676.463 billion won. Including payment guarantees of 22.528 billion won, total credit exposure stood at 698.991 billion won.
