This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 2:54 p.m. on Mar. 17, 2026.
Woongjin group is pushing to sell Lexfield Country Club (CC), a prestigious members-only golf course in Yeoju, Gyeonggi. The desired sale price is more than 300 billion won, seen as a decisive move to respond to a large debt maturity coming in June.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 17th, Woongjin group is sounding out whether some potential buyers are interested in acquiring Lexfield CC. There is said to be no lead manager.
The price Woongjin wants is at least 11 billion won per hole. Given the total 27-hole size and the existence of idle land, the desired sale price is estimated to exceed 300 billion won in total.
Financial pressure lies behind Woongjin group pulling out the Lexfield CC sale card. The group faces the June maturity of about 200 billion won in bridge loans raised on its own credit during last year's acquisition of Preed Life.
In June last year, Woongjin group bought funeral service company Preed Life and financed the entire roughly 900 billion won acquisition price from outside. The 500 billion won senior acquisition financing was split equally by Woori Bank and DB Securities, and the 100 billion won mezzanine was handled by DB Securities with 80 billion won and Woori Investment & Securities with 20 billion won. The remaining 300 billion won is in the nature of "equity credit" based on the group's credit. Of that, excluding 100 billion won in perpetual bonds (30-year maturity), 200 billion won was set with a one-year maturity. Group-owned tangible assets such as Lexfield and Woongjin Playdoci were provided as collateral for the equity credit.
There are reportedly no obstacles in the ownership structure to sell Lexfield CC. There are no contractual clauses such as tag-along rights between the largest shareholder Woongjin Co. and the second-largest shareholder Geukdong Construction, making it possible to sell only the management control equity held by Woongjin. Woongjin Co. and Geukdong Construction each held 43.24% of Lexfield CC, but through a paid-in capital increase last year, Woongjin Co. raised its equity stake to 66.67%. Geukdong Construction was formerly an affiliate of Woongjin group, but after court receivership, its largest shareholder changed in 2016 to a Sewoon Construction consortium.
Accordingly, the fact that any new owner buying Woongjin's equity would have to continue an "uneasy cohabitation" with Geukdong Construction could be a burden for buyers. Geukdong Construction has checked Woongjin group whenever it sought to strengthen its influence over Lexfield CC. In Nov. 2017, when Lexfield CC pursued a 5 billion won third-party allotment paid-in capital increase to Woongjin Co., and again during last year's paid-in capital increase, it filed for injunctions to prohibit the issuance.
Woongjin group's high expectations are also expected to make it difficult to close a sale. An IB industry official said, "When Aekyung Group sold Jungbu CC last year at 11 billion won per hole, the bar generally rose for conglomerates that own golf courses," adding, "But given the current state of the golf market, that level is burdensome for buyers."
One of the biggest reasons Woongjin is bound to hope for a high sale price is taxes. Current individual shareholders in Lexfield include Kim Myeong-su (1.47%), the brother-in-law of Chairman Yoon Seok-geum; Yoon's eldest son, Yoon Hyung-deok, vice chairman of Lexfield CC (1.11%); and second son, Yoon Sae-bom, Woongjin vice chairman and CEO (1.11%).
The biggest burden is capital gains tax. For typical unlisted shares, even for major shareholders, a 20%–25% capital gains tax rate generally applies. But Lexfield CC is a corporation whose assets consist mostly of golf course real estate. In this case, individual shareholders are subject not to the stock transfer tax rate but to progressive taxation under the same basic rates as real estate (6%–45%). The larger the sale price, the steeper the rate climbs, effectively requiring nearly half of the capital gains to be paid in taxes. In addition, a local income tax equal to 10% of the capital gains tax is levied separately.
Separately from capital gains tax, a securities transaction tax of 0.35% of the transfer amount (transaction price) can also arise. Unlike listed shares, unlisted shares have large transaction prices, so the transaction tax alone can result in costs of hundreds of millions of won.
Lexfield CC also held sale talks with a mid-sized pharmaceutical company in 2021, but the deal fell through after they failed to bridge differences over the high valuation.
A Woongjin group official officially denied the sale push. Even so, the official said, "If a good proposal comes in from the market, we could consider it."