The Democratic Party's Eulji-ro Committee held a three-way meeting with MBK Partners, the largest shareholder of Homeplus, and Meritz Financial Group, the largest creditor, to seek the retailer's rehabilitation, but the talks only confirmed the gap between the two sides. With both MBK and Meritz refusing to take on any risk for the rehabilitation, some pointed out that the two companies effectively want Homeplus to be liquidated. The Democratic Party said it would establish a system to prevent predatory finance going forward.
The Eulji-ro Committee held the "MBK Partners-Meritz Management Meeting for Homeplus Rehabilitation" at the National Assembly on the 9th to discuss ways to revive Homeplus. Immediately after the meeting, the committee also met with Kim Sung-joo, chairman of the National Pension Service (NPS).
Although about 10 days remain to appeal the court's decision to halt the rehabilitation, the two companies remained on parallel tracks at the meeting. MBK's position is that it will provide a joint guarantee for 100 billion won only if Meritz Financial extends the full 200 billion won in loans needed for the rehabilitation. MBK argued that if Meritz lends only 100 billion won, it will not provide even that guarantee. Meritz, for its part, maintains that even if MBK Partners Chairman Michael Byung-ju Kim participates fully in the joint guarantee, the maximum it can support is 100 billion won.
Lawmakers on the Eulji-ro Committee expressed frustration, saying both companies are effectively pursuing only their own interests while failing to actively work toward rehabilitation. Rep. Min Byung-duk, chairman of the committee, said, "Meritz is earning profits as the primary creditor. But it has not put in a single won for Homeplus's rehabilitation." He added, "On the delayed interest (from the rehabilitation), they say there is 'room for reduction.' They are not saying they will reduce it—they say there is room." Rep. Kim Nam-geun, asked whether MBK and Meritz effectively want liquidation, said, "We believe that is what they are thinking."
Pressuring the companies through the NPS is also proving difficult. In its meeting with Chairman Kim, the Democratic Party requested that the pension fund consider recovering its investments from MBK. The NPS reportedly agreed with the need to recover investments in line with sanctions from the Financial Supervisory Service. However, since the NPS must avoid losses in the recovery process and would need the consent of co-investors, a swift decision is seen as unlikely.
The Democratic Party said it would prepare measures to extend the NPS's stewardship code to outsourced asset managers to stop predatory finance by firms like MBK Partners. Rep. Kim Yun said, "This incident showed the need to thoroughly apply the stewardship code not only in selecting outsourced asset managers but also throughout the management process." She added, "To prevent a recurrence, we will legislate stewardship code activities and thorough oversight of outsourced asset managers."
If Homeplus actually goes bankrupt, some 12,000 directly employed workers and about 1,000 indirectly employed workers are expected to lose their jobs. Around 4,600 suppliers that have provided goods and services to Homeplus would also suffer a devastating blow. Labor groups claim that 300,000 people are affected by the Homeplus crisis when directly and indirectly employed workers, suppliers, and small merchants operating in its stores are included.
