KAMCO Holds On-Site Meeting to Support SMEs Normalized Through 'Asset Purchase and Lease' Program

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) held an on-site meeting with supported companies of the 'Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program,' which marked its 6th year of implementation, on the 15th at the Onsan National Industrial Complex in Ulsan.

The Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program is a business normalization support program in which KAMCO temporarily purchases factories and office buildings of companies experiencing liquidity crises, then leases them back to provide new operating funds to the companies, while granting the companies the right of first refusal to repurchase the sold assets.

This on-site meeting took place during visits to Cosmo Chemical, which recently overcame a management crisis exemplary through KAMCO's Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program and exercised its right of first refusal to repurchase sold assets, and TCT, which began business normalization after selling assets to KAMCO last year. Cosmo Chemical is the only domestic producer of titanium dioxide (anatase). After receiving 35.8 billion KRW in funding through the Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program in 2016 and making self-help efforts, it turned profitable and saw its stock price more than double, successfully normalizing its management. Accordingly, on the 6th, it exercised its right of first refusal to repurchase the office building sold to KAMCO.

Moon Sung-yoo, President of KAMCO, plans to strengthen the effectiveness of support through the Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program and reflect it in future business normalization support program operations by directly listening to on-site difficulties and suggestions.

President Moon stated, "Since 2015, KAMCO has supported business normalization by supplying new operating funds to SMEs in management crises through the Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program," adding, "this year, we will expand the support scale up to 200 billion KRW, exceeding last year's 162.1 billion KRW support scale for the Asset Purchase and Leaseback Program, and also activate DIP financing support for rehabilitated companies to spare no effort in supporting the swift recovery of mid-sized and small enterprises in management crises."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.