SEOUL, January 8 (AJP) - Prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for Kim Byung-ju, the chairman of private equity firm MBK Partners, along with three other executives over supermarket chain Homeplus' abrupt filing for court receivership.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors requested the warrants for them late Wednesday night on charges of fraud and other alleged violations of relevant laws.
MBK Partners, which acquired a 100 percent stake in Homeplus from British grocery chain Tesco Plc in 2015, later became financially strapped, leading it to request court-led rehabilitation in March last year.
Prosecutors believe that MBK executives knew in advance that Homeplus' credit rating would be downgraded in February last year. Despite being aware of this, they issued large-scale asset-backed short-term bonds worth 82 billion Korean won (US$56.6 million) without disclosing the impending downgrade and filed for court-led corporate rehabilitation just a few days later.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors requested the warrants for them late Wednesday night on charges of fraud and other alleged violations of relevant laws.
MBK Partners, which acquired a 100 percent stake in Homeplus from British grocery chain Tesco Plc in 2015, later became financially strapped, leading it to request court-led rehabilitation in March last year.
Prosecutors believe that MBK executives knew in advance that Homeplus' credit rating would be downgraded in February last year. Despite being aware of this, they issued large-scale asset-backed short-term bonds worth 82 billion Korean won (US$56.6 million) without disclosing the impending downgrade and filed for court-led corporate rehabilitation just a few days later.
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