MBK Incinerates Entire 2.5 Trillion Won Stake in Homeplus, Eliminating Management Control

Following the approval of Homeplus's rehabilitation plan, approximately 2.4 million common shares of Homeplus held by MBK Partners have been completely written off without compensation, erasing both the existing controlling shareholder's equity and management control.

According to the Seoul Bankruptcy Court and the investment banking (IB) industry on October 7, pursuant to the rehabilitation plan approved by the court on September 2, approximately 2.4 million common shares of Homeplus held by the special purpose company (SPC) affiliated with MBK were entirely written off without compensation on September 14.

A zero-compensation write-off is a measure that extinguishes shares without providing any separate compensation or consideration to shareholders.

MBK had secured these shares by injecting approximately 2.5 trillion won in equity capital when it acquired Homeplus in 2015.

Consequently, in the upcoming pre-approval merger and acquisition (M&A) process, potential buyers will no longer need to acquire existing shares from MBK or separately negotiate equity acquisition terms.

MBK had publicly stated its intention to write off its controlling stake without compensation since the early stages of the rehabilitation proceedings last year.

However, industry insiders note that the ultimate rehabilitation of Homeplus depends on the successful conclusion of a pre-approval M&A, the normalization of operations, and debt restructuring, making it difficult to gauge the likelihood of recovery solely based on the write-off of the existing controlling stake.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.