The scale of short-term bonds sold to individual investors by Homeplus has been found to reach around 200 billion won. The retail sales scale, including sales to general corporations, is at the level of 540 billion won. Considering that the total outstanding Homeplus bond sales amount to 600 billion won, it appears that the majority has been offloaded to individuals and general corporations. Given that most of the bonds have been sold to individuals and general corporations, it is expected that suspicions of improper sales will arise.
In addition, it has been identified that a significant amount of individual investor funds are tied up in a real estate investment trust (REITs) and real estate funds with a scale of around 1 trillion won based on Homeplus stores, raising the possibility of a rapid increase in the scale of damage.
According to data received by lawmaker Kang Min-guk of the People Power Party from the Financial Supervisory Service and the financial investment industry on the 16th, as of the 3rd, the total outstanding sales of short-term bonds, including Homeplus commercial paper, card payment-backed securities (ABSTB), and short-term bonds, amount to 594.9 billion won.
Of this, the scale sold to individual investors through securities company branches is estimated at 207.5 billion won (676 cases). The scale sold to general corporations is 332.7 billion won (192 cases). It has been reported that small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in technology, electronics, and shipping industries have primarily invested in Homeplus short-term bonds.
If Homeplus had issued bonds to offload losses to individual investors while already preparing for corporate rehabilitation procedures, there is a possibility that it could escalate into a major criminal case, similar to the Tongyang and LIG incidents.
In the last month when Homeplus applied for corporate rehabilitation, it issued short-term bonds worth a total of 180.7 billion won over 11 times. The issuance of ABSTB was 151.7 billion won (four times), followed by short-term bonds of 16 billion won (four times), and commercial paper of 13 billion won (three times). Homeplus is also under suspicion of issuing 82 billion won worth of ABSTB even after recognizing a credit rating downgrade from a credit rating agency on the 25th of the previous month.
Concerns are also rising that significant individual investor losses may occur in REITs or real estate funds that incorporate Homeplus stores as assets. Homeplus has been employing a 'sale and leaseback' strategy, where it sells quality stores for cash and later leases them back for operations.
REITs incorporating stores as assets have been paying dividends to investors from the rental income received from Homeplus. However, if Homeplus begins to stop paying rent, investor losses could become substantial. Financial authorities are reported to identify the scale of REITs and funds with Homeplus stores as underlying assets to be around 1 trillion won.