Homeplus Completes Asset Securitization of Ansan Branch

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The asset securitization of Homeplus Ansan branch has been completed.

Homeplus announced on the 16th that it has received the payment from the buyer of the Ansan branch real estate and completed the sale.

Homeplus will maintain operations until August 2021 to ensure shopping convenience for customers at the Ansan branch and to help employees and mall tenants adapt stably to the changes.

Through sufficient dialogue with the mall tenants at the Ansan branch, Homeplus has amicably concluded agreements with over 97% of the tenants among all stores, and plans to sincerely reflect the positions of the remaining tenants to finalize the negotiations.

In addition to the Ansan branch, asset securitization is also progressing smoothly for the Daejeon Dunsan branch, Tanbang branch, and Daegu branch, where asset securitization has been confirmed.

Amid the overall downturn in the offline retail industry and the adverse effects caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), Homeplus, which has been placed in an uncertain business environment with record-breaking worst performance, has increased the visibility of its plans to secure liquidity for stable business operations and future projects through this asset securitization.

Meanwhile, regarding the 'personnel restructuring rumors' raised by some, Homeplus stated that it is "not considering it at all." They reiterated their position that employees working at the stores subject to asset securitization can continue to work at their current stores until the business closure, and that there will be no change in the employment guarantee policy even after the closure.

Homeplus plans to conduct procedures such as transfer placement interviews with sufficient time for employees, minimizing inconvenience by considering the status of workplaces where each transfer will take place as well as employees' commuting distances. The target workplaces for transfer placement include nearby hypermarkets, as well as business divisions showing remarkable growth in line with distribution trends such as online business and Homeplus Express (SSM).

A Homeplus official said, "The claim that 'there is no capacity to transfer personnel to nearby stores, so restructuring is inevitable' raised by some is not true," adding, "On the contrary, there are steady retirements among store employees, and a significant number of employees are reaching retirement age, so we are actually in a situation where we need to hire new personnel."

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