This article was posted on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 2:43 p.m. Dec. 18, 2025.
The husband of a famous YouTuber who bought HanWool & Jeju (formerly Jeju Beer) earlier this month attempted, upon acquisition, to sell real estate he owned to HanWool & Jeju at an inflated price but abandoned the plan after opposition from shareholders. It was a typical cashless M&A attempt to buy the company with outside funds and then use company money to repay borrowing fund.
On the 18th, according to the investment banking industry and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) electronic disclosure system, HanWool & Jeju disclosed that it would withdraw a real estate purchase contract worth 25.5 billion won with F&B Mobility.
HanWool & Jeju is known as a company engaged in the brewing business that makes Jeju Beer. It was listed on the KOSDAQ in 2021 riding the craft beer boom, but its business performance deteriorated afterward and its ownership changed hands several times. (Related article☞ 2 years, three owners for Jeju Beer... HanWool Group ate up half the cash and returned it to KOSDAQ players)
Currently, the largest shareholder of Jeju Beer, K-Partners No. 1 investment association, was established with full capital from Kang Yong-ho, CEO of F&B Mobility. Kang drew public attention when he married a famous YouTuber in 2022. He also has a past conviction that included a prison sentence for acting as a broker in match-fixing in professional volleyball and professional baseball. The YouTuber who married Kang is active in beauty and travel and has about 600,000 subscribers.
Kang borrowed 12 billion won from listed KOSDAQ company XCURE by using real estate owned by corporations owned by him and his younger sibling as collateral and used it as funds to acquire HanWool & Jeju. This is a typical cashless M&A case in which the entire acquisition fund was borrowed.
Afterward, Kang appeared to plan not only to use HanWool & Jeju's funds to repay the borrowed funds but also to pocket additional gains. Immediately after Kang acquired HanWool & Jeju, the company signed a contract to buy real estate owned by F&B Mobility. The deal was to buy land and buildings in Gujwa-eup, Jeju City, for 25.5 billion won. Of the real estate purchase funds, about 12 billion won was to be used directly from the funds K-Partners No. 1 investment association paid as a cash capital increase. Had the deal gone through, Kang could have transferred the real estate to HanWool & Jeju and created a structure to recover the acquisition funds while taking gains amounting to about 13 billion won.
But as controversy over the "overpriced purchase" erupted, it met opposition from shareholders. It became known that F&B Mobility bought the real estate in 2022 for around 10 billion won. HanWool & Jeju ultimately decided to cancel the contract and agreed to return the 14 billion won in deposits it had previously paid to F&B Mobility in two installments.
HanWool & Jeju said, "Additional risk factors were identified during the contract performance process," and added, "We decided to comprehensively review all matters to prevent potential losses in advance and to pursue stable business operations."
With this contract canceled, their fund management plans are also expected to be disrupted. The repayment due date for the 12 billion won that F&B Mobility borrowed from XCURE as acquisition funds for HanWool & Jeju was on the 2nd. Because HanWool & Jeju paid 14 billion won on Nov. 27 as the deposit for the real estate acquisition, it appears the funds borrowed from XCURE have likely been repaid. Only 2 billion won of the deposit has been returned so far, and the remaining 12 billion won is scheduled to be returned on the 24th. For F&B Mobility, the company now faces having to raise the large sum of 12 billion won within a week and return it to HanWool & Jeju.
Capital market officials say that although the largest shareholder's attempt to use company money to cover external borrowing once failed, similar incidents could happen again in the future.
An industry official said, "As Kang's attempt to recover acquisition funds through real estate fell apart, it appears cash flow has been disrupted," and added, "Attempts to secure funds by some means are likely to be made again."