▲ JoongAng Ilbo and JTBC headquarters
The court has approved the application for the Autonomous Restructuring Support (ARS) program by the general programming channel JTBC and has deferred its decision on commencing corporate rehabilitation proceedings (receivership).
Meanwhile, the court has decided to initiate rehabilitation proceedings for four other JoongAng Group affiliates.
The Seoul Bankruptcy Court's 2nd Rehabilitation Division (Chief Judge Jung Joon-young) decided today (June 30) to postpone its ruling on whether to commence rehabilitation proceedings for JTBC until July 30 to monitor the progress of its ARS negotiations.
The ARS program is a system that allows companies and creditors to negotiate restructuring autonomously before the court decides whether to initiate formal rehabilitation proceedings.
JTBC had previously filed for rehabilitation proceedings on June 15, while simultaneously expressing its intent to pursue the ARS process.
During the ARS process, the court can defer the commencement of rehabilitation proceedings for up to three months, and this period may be extended if significant progress is made in negotiations.
If an agreement is reached during the deferral period, JTBC may withdraw its rehabilitation application and implement its planned ARS measures.
If negotiations fail, the court will proceed to decide whether to initiate formal rehabilitation proceedings.
For the four other JoongAng Group affiliates—JoongAng Holdings, Contentree JoongAng, JoongAng P&I, and Megabox JoongAng—the court issued a decision to commence rehabilitation proceedings today.
The court notified these companies of the deadlines for submitting creditor lists, filing and investigating claims, submitting investigation reports, holding stakeholder briefings, and submitting rehabilitation plans.
The deadlines for submitting rehabilitation plans for the four JoongAng Group affiliates were set for December 1 for Megabox JoongAng, December 15 for Contentree JoongAng, and December 22 for JoongAng Holdings and JoongAng P&I.
The court plans to investigate the circumstances that led the five companies, including JTBC, to seek rehabilitation, as well as their asset values, going-concern values, and liquidation values.
The financial crisis at JoongAng Group surfaced when JTBC declared a default on June 12, failing to repay 20.6 billion won in securitized borrowings upon maturity.
Following this, JoongAng Holdings, Contentree JoongAng, JoongAng P&I, and Megabox JoongAng filed for rehabilitation proceedings on June 14, followed by JTBC, the epicenter of the crisis, on June 15.
(Photo: Courtesy of JoongAng Group, Yonhap News)
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