À̹ÌÁö È®´ë Asiana Airlines and its family are headed to go under creditors led by Korea Development Bank (KDB) as the state lender more or less gave up on HDC Hyundai Development by blaming the bidder for stalling and wrecking the buyout deal.
¡°Kumho Industrial (parent of Asiana Airlines) and KDB have not done anything wrong (during the deal process), and the full responsibility of a deal collapse lies with HDC Hyundai Development,¡± said KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull during an online briefing on Monday.
Lee advised HDC Hyundai Development against claiming back its advance payment since it had walked out of the deal.
¡°It won¡¯t be desirable for the issue (redemption of earlier payment) to go to court as it does not help creditors¡¯ efforts to find alternative bidder or normalize Asiana Airlines,¡± said KDB Vice Chairman Choi Dae-hyun.
À̹ÌÁö È®´ë KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull. [Photo provided by KDB]
HDC Hyundai Development has handed over 250 billion won ($209 million) for its near $2 billion offer in December to buy out the full-service airliner with two budget carriers under its arm. It recently has called for a fresh round of due diligence until the end of the year to reassess the buyout value to take into account of the worsened business state and outlook from pandemic-battered air travel industry.
Kumho Industrial, parent of Asiana Airlines, sided with the creditors, saying ¡°if HDC Hyundai Development comes forward in all sincerity to the negotiation table, we can meet and make progress any time.¡±
KDB pressed the HDC consortium to make clear position on its acquisition offer by August 12 or the agreement would be called off. If the deal flops, the airliner will be put under creditor management or KDB.
¡°We could become stakeholder through converting perpetual bonds into equity,¡± Choi said.
He said additional bailout could go into the airliner to normalize the company and reattempt sale upon improvement in corporate and market conditions.
Asiana Airlines shares on Tuesday closed 3.02 percent higher at 4,090 won in Seoul, and Kumho Industrial 0.73 percent up at 6,900 won.
By Choi Seung-jin, Song Gwang-sup, Chung Joo-won and Lee Ha-yeon
[¨Ï Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]