Lee Bok-hyun "Starting Investigation of Homeplus Major Shareholder MBK from Today"

MBK Task Force Formed...
"Designated as a Priority Task for the First Half of This Year"
"Samsung SDI's Rights Offering... 'Encouraging'"
"Commercial Act Amendment Has Become Politicized"...
Proposes Public Debate to HanKyungHyup

On the 19th, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will begin an inspection of MBK Partners, the major shareholder of Homeplus. The inspection will investigate various suspicions, including whether MBK issued a large-scale bond despite being aware of the credit rating downgrade in advance.

Yonhap News

At a press briefing held at the FSS office in Yeouido, Seoul, on the same day, Lee Bok-hyun, Governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, stated, "We plan to start an inspection of MBK today to verify the various issues raised by the Homeplus incident." He added, "We will form a team under the deputy governor and establish a task force (TF) to respond to the current situation, proceeding with this as a priority task." He also mentioned, "At minimum, either Deputy Governor Ham Yong-il (Capital Markets and Accounting) or Deputy Governor Seo Jae-wan (Financial Investment) will lead the effort."

This is the first time the FSS has conducted a surprise inspection of a private equity fund related to a specific issue. According to the Capital Markets Act, the FSS Governor may inspect the operations and assets of institution-exclusive private collective investment schemes when necessary to maintain the stability of the financial market or sound trading order.

Governor Lee also voiced strong criticism toward MBK. He said, "Homeplus must demonstrate sincerity to show trustworthiness to its partner companies and investors." He added, "In that regard, it is very regrettable that Kim Byung-joo, chairman of MBK, the major shareholder of Homeplus, did not attend yesterday's hearing." He further urged, "If MBK is sincere, we call on them to actively cooperate with inspections and investigations to ensure that their goodwill is trusted."

Regarding the scope of the inspection, he explained, "It will not be limited to certain parts but will include the timing of MBK's awareness of Homeplus's credit rating downgrade, the timing of the rehabilitation application plan, suspicions of unfair trading during the issuance and sale process of electronic short-term bonds (jeondanchae), and whether investors (LPs) were harmed during the transfer of redemption rights of redeemable convertible preferred shares (RCPS)."

He also expressed a commitment to promptly handle the recent case where Samsung SDI became the first subject of the FSS's focused review. The FSS had previously announced that it would select focused reviews of rights offerings based on major categories such as concerns about stock value dilution, potential harm to common shareholders' rights, excessive financial risk, and negligence of the underwriter's duty of care, divided into seven subcategories.

He said, "We plan to review and process the securities registration statement as quickly as possible to avoid any disruption to the investor funding schedule." He explained, "If the securities registration statement contains sufficient information that investors need to know, the authorities should take measures to allow the statement to take effect within a few days at most."

Governor Lee stated, "The focused review of rights offerings is intended to ensure that companies provide accurate and detailed information to investors on matters of high interest." He added, "It is a serious misunderstanding to think that this means exercising approval authority."

He also evaluated Samsung SDI's recent decision on the rights offering as rather encouraging. He said, "There are issues such as the battery chasm (temporary demand stagnation) and slowing demand for electric vehicles," but emphasized, "In the past, industries like semiconductors and shipbuilding were reorganized around companies that survived the down cycle amid excessive overlapping competition." He added, "It is encouraging that our leading companies are making investments with market-acceptable content."

Regarding recent opinions in political and business circles advocating for the exercise of the re-request right (veto power) on the amendment to the Commercial Act, he expressed opposition. He said, "The re-request right is for clear cases that violate constitutional order, and the amendment to the Commercial Act is not such a case." He argued, "From an economic impact perspective, the amendment to the Commercial Act follows global standards."

He also proposed a public debate to the Korea Economic Organization Association (HanKyungHyup), which opposes the amendment to the Commercial Act. This was interpreted as a response to the recommendation by eight economic organizations, including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and HanKyungHyup, to Acting President Choi Sang-mok to veto the amendment. He said, "As the amendment to the Commercial Act has become politicized, discourse has disappeared." He added, "HanKyungHyup represents the position of businesses and is closely positioned, so if there is agreement on specific methods, it would be good to discuss together in front of the public from the perspective of policy and system rather than political issues."

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