Court Questioning for JoongAng Group Concludes; Decision on Rehabilitation Expected by Early July

The court's representative questioning for five JoongAng Group affiliates that filed for rehabilitation has concluded.

The 2nd Division of the Seoul Rehabilitation Court (Presiding Judge Jung Joon-young) held representative questioning sessions for JoongAng Holdings, JoongAng P&I, JTBC, Megabox JoongAng, and Contentree JoongAng in sequence starting at 10:00 a.m. today (June 23).

Hong Jeong-do, Vice Chairman of JoongAng Group, and CEO Kim Jin-kyu attended the questioning for JoongAng Holdings and JoongAng P&I, which took place at 10:00 a.m.

Vice Chairman Hong, who entered the courtroom avoiding reporters, stated upon leaving after the session ended around 12:20 p.m., "I will faithfully follow the court's decision."

JTBC CEO Jeon Jin-bae attended the representative questioning for JTBC held at 2:00 p.m.

CEO Jeon only provided a general statement, saying, "I will explain the management situation of JTBC to the court in detail," and did not respond to questions from reporters asking for his thoughts on the criticism that "World Cup broadcasting was the cause (of the liquidity crisis)."

Subsequently, CEO Hong Jeong-in attended the questioning for Contentree JoongAng and Megabox JoongAng alongside Lee Joong-won, CEO of the Management Division at Contentree JoongAng, and Nam Yong-seok, CEO of Megabox JoongAng, respectively.

After the session, CEO Hong told reporters, "We explained in detail how we intend to establish rehabilitation plans for Contentree JoongAng and Megabox JoongAng, and what the current status of our assets and liabilities is."

It is understood that the representatives of each company explained their specific financial status, including assets and liabilities, as well as their funding plans to the court during the session.

However, it was noted that there was no mention of the group owner family's private asset contributions during the questioning.

No additional questioning dates have been scheduled for each company at this time.

According to the Debtor Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy Act, the court must decide whether to commence rehabilitation proceedings within one month from the date the debtor files for them.

The court's decision is expected to be made by early next month at the latest.

The JoongAng Group liquidity crisis began when JTBC declared a default on the 12th after failing to repay maturing asset-backed borrowings totaling 20.6 billion won.

Two days later, on the 14th, JoongAng Holdings, Contentree JoongAng, JoongAng P&I, and Megabox JoongAng filed for the commencement of rehabilitation proceedings one after another.

On the 15th, JTBC also filed for rehabilitation with the court.

The court assigned all the filing cases to the 2nd Division of the Rehabilitation Court and issued preservation orders and comprehensive injunctions to freeze the companies' assets and claims.

JTBC previously submitted an application to the court to postpone the commencement of rehabilitation proceedings and expressed its desire to participate in the Autonomous Restructuring Support (ARS) program.

ARS is a system where the court postpones the commencement of compulsory rehabilitation proceedings to support companies and creditors in negotiating restructuring autonomously.

If the court approves the ARS program, the commencement of rehabilitation proceedings can be postponed for up to three months, and further extensions are possible if there is progress in the creditor negotiation process.
 

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.