This article was published on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 2:15 p.m. on Oct. 28, 2025.
LX Group holding company LX Holdings is stepping into the corporate bond market to secure a head office building for the first time in about four years since its founding.
According to the investment banking industry on the 28th, LX Holdings will hold a demand forecast for institutional investors related to the corporate bond issuance on the 31st. It plans to issue public corporate bonds totaling 150 billion won in 2-, 3- and 5-year maturities. LX Holdings has left open the possibility of increasing the issue to up to 200 billion won depending on the demand forecast results. NH Investment & Securities, KB Securities, Korea Investment & Securities and Shinhan Investment Corp. are the joint lead managers, and issuance is targeted for Nov. 7.
LX Holdings, which has effectively operated without borrowings since spinning off from LG Group in 2021, planned the public bond fundraising to raise funds to buy the LG Gwanghwamun building. On the 17th, LX Holdings announced it would buy the LG Gwanghwamun building in Jongno-gu, Seoul, from LG.
The purchase price is about 512 billion won, equal to 26.88% of LX Holdings' total assets as of year-end last year. LX Holdings paid the contract deposit (51.2 billion won) on the 20th and plans to pay the remaining 90% (460.8 billion won) at year-end. Considering LX Holdings had about 300 billion won in cash and cash equivalents as of June, it needs outside funding. LX Holdings relies on dividends from six affiliates including LX International (trading and resource development), LX Hausys (building materials) and LX Semicon (semiconductors) as its revenue source.
The market expects LX Holdings' corporate bond issuance to go smoothly. LX Holdings, which had no prior bond issuance history and therefore no separate credit rating, received a new long-term credit rating of AA- from NICE Investors Service through a full rating on the 23rd. The outlook is stable.
NICE Investors Service explained the background for the credit rating by saying, "As a pure holding company, LX Holdings has a very strong standalone financial structure," and "excluding lease liabilities, it has no borrowings, and considering rental income that could be generated from the property after the office investment, cash-flow stability could be strengthened."
There is analysis that LX Holdings will begin to increase its engagement with the capital markets in earnest starting with this issuance. An industry official said, "Affiliates such as LX Pantos, LX International and LX Hausys completed fund-raising in the public bond market in April," and added, "In the early days after the group's launch, securing a stable business base was the priority, but now it seems they will reorganize strategy toward expanding the portfolio."
This office acquisition is expected to produce medium- to long-term financial improvement effects. LX Holdings, LX International and LX Pantos had been renting at the LG Gwanghwamun building, paying a security deposit of 8.3 billion won and annual rent of about 10 billion won. Adding the rents for LG Seoul Station building, where affiliates LX Hausys and MMA were, and the LG Electronics Yangjae R&D (research and development) campus where LX Semicon is located brings the total to about 15 billion won.