This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 10:13 a.m. on Jun. 4, 2026.
Seoul Electronics & Telecom, a KOSDAQ-listed company whose owner recently changed, also received a ruling in the appellate trial in the lawsuit with Abpro Bio over the return of the deposit arising from the sale of its former subsidiary Zinitix, ordering it to pay back the deposit. As soon as the new largest shareholder of Seoul Electronics & Telecom took over management control, it faced the task of paying back the deposit as well as the negative effects such as a decline in the stock price.
According to the capital market industry on the 4th, the Seoul High Court on May 28 dismissed the appeal filed by Seoul Electronics & Telecom against the first-trial ruling ordering it to return the deposit to Abpro Bio. Accordingly, the first-trial ruling was upheld, ordering Seoul Electronics & Telecom to return the deposit it received from Abpro Bio in Jan. last year with interest added.
Abpro Bio sought to acquire management control of Zinitix, which had been a subsidiary of Seoul Electronics & Telecom, in 2022. The plan was to acquire for 37 billion won a 30.91% equity stake held by Seoul Electronics & Telecom, National Information & Credit Evaluation (NICE) Group owner family President Kim Won-woo, and Kim Su-a.
Abpro Bio paid a 7.4 billion won deposit and even conducted due diligence to acquire Zinitix, but the deal fell through in Dec. of the same year, and the deposit was forfeited. This was after it was confirmed during due diligence that part of the expense paid to an overseas partner before listing had been omitted from Zinitix's books. Abpro Bio said Zinitix recognized the expense omission yet tried to inflate revenue, arguing that the seller was responsible for the termination of the contract. In contrast, Seoul Electronics & Telecom countered that it was a mere expense omission and that it bore no responsibility for the termination.
In the first-trial lawsuit filed by Abpro Bio against Seoul Electronics & Telecom and Chairman Kim and others to return the deposit, the court sided with Abpro Bio. The first trial court found that there was uncertainty due to accounting omissions at the time of the sale agreement and determined that the seller was responsible for the breakdown of the deal. Accordingly, it ruled that Seoul Electronics & Telecom must return to Abpro Bio about 8 billion won, including the deposit it received and interest.
Seoul Electronics & Telecom immediately appealed, but with the appeal dismissed this time, its financial burden has grown. The amount Seoul Electronics & Telecom is estimated to have to pay back to Abpro Bio, including accrued interest, is about 11 billion won. Even excluding the 3.3 billion won deposited with the court, an outflow of funds close to 8 billion won is unavoidable. Given that Seoul Electronics & Telecom's cash and cash equivalents stood at 6.7 billion won in the first quarter of this year, it lacks the capacity to pay the refund.
Beyond the deposit refund, Seoul Electronics & Telecom is also known to have to repay 5.5 billion won borrowed from S2B Network, a private company of the National Information & Credit Evaluation (NICE) Group owner family, by the end of Aug.
Those who recently acquired management control of Seoul Electronics & Telecom are expected to face financial burdens from the early stages of the acquisition. The Daon International side, which acquired Seoul Electronics & Telecom, paid about 10.8 billion won in acquisition funds on May 21 and about a week later on the 28th became the new largest shareholder by acquiring all the equity of the former largest shareholder.
A source in the capital market industry said, "Both the deposit refund lawsuit and the loan repayment were already identified by the buyers during the sale of management control," adding, "While the acquisition cost would have been set considering all of these issues, it is true that the sale took place under financially difficult circumstances."
The stock trend after the sale of management control is also a burden. After trading resumed following a reverse stock split, the first trading day on May 28 hit the upper limit and rose into the 3,000 won range, then turned downward and has recently been trading in the low 2,000 won range.
Daon International raised 2.87 billion won of the 3.87 billion won acquisition funds through external borrowing. The borrowing terms required pledging Seoul Electronics & Telecom shares as collateral, with a collateral ratio of 160%. Based on this, the forced sell-off threshold price is estimated at around 2,200 won. Although Seoul Electronics & Telecom's stock at one point fell below 2,000 won, it appears additional collateral was provided or partial repayment was made to prevent a forced sell-off.
An industry source said, "From the outset, the buyers' borrowing fund was so large that the structure was inevitably vulnerable to stock volatility," adding, "Risks appear to be surfacing inside and outside the company."