Homeplus Says It Will Normalize Operations by Selling 19 Stores and Using Mortgage Loans to Repay Debt

Homeplus announced that once its rehabilitation plan is approved, it will sell self-owned stores among its closed locations to repay trust-secured bonds, and subsequently secure additional real estate mortgage loans to settle the remaining debt.

In an official statement released today (August 20), Homeplus explained, "As soon as the rehabilitation plan is approved, we will immediately initiate the sale of 19 out of the 37 closed stores currently owned by the company, with the sales process scheduled for completion by February 2028." The company added, "The proceeds from the sales will be used to repay trust-secured bondholders, and we expect to cover the entire amount through the sale of these 19 stores."

Homeplus stated, "Once the trust-secured bonds are fully repaid, the security rights will be lifted, enabling us to utilize our remaining owned stores for real estate mortgage loans."

A total of 62 Homeplus self-owned stores are currently held as trust collateral by Meritz.

Trust collateral is not included in the general bankruptcy estate auction process and can be independently disposed of by the creditors holding the security rights.

The strategy involves selling the 19 stores to release the security rights, and then securing new mortgage loans to utilize the funds.

Homeplus plans to secure real estate mortgage loans using 38 self-owned stores (appraised at approximately 2.8 trillion won) as underlying assets in February 2030 and February 2037 to repay its debts.

The company stated, "In 2030, we plan to take out a mortgage loan on a scale relatively small compared to our asset size to repay debt, and in 2037, we will expand the loan to the size of a conventional real estate mortgage to settle the remaining debt, including the 2030 mortgage loan."

Homeplus claimed, "By 2030, operations across all 67 stores will be fully normalized, generating 4.3 trillion won in annual revenue and 162.8 billion won in operating profit."

It further projected that "operating profit will increase to 218.2 billion won by 2037."

Homeplus stated, "With annual free cash flow ranging from 150 billion won to 300 billion won being generated, there will be no operational burden."
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.