JTBC, Megabox among five JoongAng Group affiliates facing pivotal rehabilitation hearing Tuesday

A Seoul court is holding representative hearings Tuesday for five JoongAng Group affiliates, including JTBC, in a proceeding that could determine the fate of the troubled media conglomerate.

The Seoul Rehabilitation Court's Second Rehabilitation Division, presided over by Chief Judge Jeong Jun-young, will hear representatives from JoongAng Holdings, JoongAng P&I, JTBC, Megabox JoongAng and ContentreeJoongAng in sequence beginning at 10 a.m.

JoongAng Holdings and JoongAng P&I will be represented by CEO Kim Ki-hyun, while JTBC will send CEO Jeon Jin-bae and management support chief Nam Jung-kwon. Megabox JoongAng and ContentreeJoongAng will be represented by CEO Hong Jeong-in alongside co-representatives from each company. The executives are expected to present the court with details on the scale of their debts and proposed restructuring plans.

The crisis began June 12, when JTBC defaulted on 20.6 billion won ($13.4 million) in securitized borrowings it failed to repay at maturity. JoongAng Holdings, ContentreeJoongAng, JoongAng P&I and Megabox JoongAng filed for court rehabilitation on June 14, with JTBC following suit the next day.

The court assigned all five cases to the Second Rehabilitation Division and issued asset and bond freezes along with comprehensive stay orders. JTBC separately notified the court on June 14 that it wished to pursue the Autonomous Restructuring Support, or ARS, program — a court-supervised arrangement that allows a company and its creditors to negotiate restructuring terms voluntarily while the court holds off on formally opening compulsory rehabilitation proceedings.

Meanwhile, JoongAng Ilbo — the founding entity of the group — suffered a primary default on June 18 after failing to honor an early redemption request from Hanyang Securities on 22 billion won in commercial paper.

The paper had originally been set to mature in December of this year (12 billion won) and March next year (10 billion won), but an event of default triggered by the group's liquidity crisis allowed the creditor to demand early repayment.

Earlier, JoongAng Group Vice Chairman Hong Jeong-do held a press conference June 15 at the JoongAng Ilbo Building in Mapo-gu, Seoul, saying the company had been left with "no choice but to make today's unavoidable decision" due to a combination of factors including a deteriorating external economic environment and a funding squeeze caused by credit rating downgrades.

“우와~” 환호 터진 과자탑…이마트 골라담기 또 터졌다 [르포]

이마트는 지난 2월 8년 만에 부활시킨 ‘무한 골라담기’ 행사가 인스타그램과 유튜브에서 인스타그램에 과자와 하림 더미식 즉석밥을 최대한 많이 쌓아 담는 방식으로 인

https://biz.heraldcorp.com/article/10783670

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