Did Homeplus Know About the Credit Downgrade in Advance?... Prosecution Raids Korea Ratings and NICE Investors Service
Corporate Rehabilitation Filed Four Days After Credit Downgrade
Prosecutors to Verify When Homeplus Was Notified of Possible Downgrade
The prosecution, which is investigating various allegations surrounding the Homeplus short-term bond incident, has conducted a search and seizure at Korea Ratings and NICE Investors Service, the agencies that downgraded Homeplus's credit rating.
According to legal sources on May 12, the Third Anti-Corruption Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, led by Chief Prosecutor Lee Seunghak, carried out a search and seizure at the offices of NICE Investors Service and Korea Ratings in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, earlier that morning.
NICE Investors Service and Korea Ratings announced on February 28 that they would downgrade Homeplus's commercial paper and short-term bond credit ratings from 'A3' to 'A3-'. Subsequently, on March 4, Homeplus filed for corporate rehabilitation (court receivership) with the Seoul Bankruptcy Court.
The prosecution suspects that, during this process, Homeplus and MBK Partners may have learned about the impending credit rating downgrade before the first official notification on February 25, and issued bonds in advance in an attempt to pass on losses to investors.
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In particular, the prosecution is focusing on the possibility that Homeplus and MBK Partners' management were aware of the impending downgrade and planned the corporate rehabilitation filing in advance, but concealed this information and proceeded to issue short-term bonds. Accordingly, the prosecution is expected to use the materials obtained from the search and seizure to verify when the credit rating agencies warned and notified Homeplus of the possibility of a downgrade.
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