This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 4:29 p.m. on July 16, 2026.
Homeplus Co., which had been driven to the brink of bankruptcy, is set to secure 200 billion won in emergency operating funds. Meritz Financial Group will extend the loan, and majority shareholder MBK Partners and Chairman Kim Byung-ju will provide joint and several guarantees for the full amount. However, some say the funds are closer to a "three-month lifeline" to pay overdue merchandise bills and buy time to find a new owner, rather than investment to put Homeplus Co.'s business back on track.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 16th, Meritz Financial affiliates held board meetings that afternoon to deliberate on lending 200 billion won in emergency operating funds (DIP) to Homeplus Co. MBK and Chairman Kim Byung-ju agreed to provide joint and several guarantees for the entire loan. Accordingly, Homeplus Co. plans to immediately appeal the decision to terminate rehabilitation proceedings by the 20th.
According to the structural innovation-type rehabilitation plan previously proposed by Homeplus Co., if 37 stores are closed and only 67 of the total are kept, the expense needed until the business turns profitable is about 300 billion won. Of that, 100 billion won had been raised from the sale of Homeplus Express, and the remaining 200 billion won is now being added.
The 200 billion won coming in this time is expected to be used mostly to restart operations that have halted. A substantial portion will go to merchandise payments that could not be made to suppliers and to purchases of new goods. And since stores nationwide have been temporarily closed since the 13th, funds also need to be deployed for store maintenance expense such as electricity and rent.
Inside and outside the industry, the view is that if Homeplus Co. restarts operations with 200 billion won, it can hold out for about three months without additional funds. However, even with an extension, the deadline for approving Homeplus Co.'s rehabilitation plan is set for Sept. 4. By then at the latest, Homeplus Co. must find an acquirer acceptable to the court and present a concrete transaction structure.
Legally, all M&A of the remaining business units does not have to be completed within this period. But because it is difficult to repay rehabilitation claims with standalone operating cash flow and no additional operating funds have been secured, only by signing a binding acquisition agreement or attracting a credible new investor can the feasibility of carrying out the rehabilitation plan be recognized.
In its structural innovation-type rehabilitation plan, Homeplus Co. said it would recover about 1.64 trillion won through asset sales. That is the total of the expected sale prices of each store and funds to come in from liquidating noncore owned stores. The liquidation value of each business unit was set as the floor for sale proceeds.
However, given that Homeplus Co.'s attempts at M&A have already fallen through multiple times, market expectations for a sale have indeed declined to some extent. With each repeated sale process, a substantial portion of the company's financial and operating information was disclosed to potential buyers, and the business value has been further damaged by the suspension of product supply and store closures, which is also a burden.
Homeplus Co. and sale manager Samil PwC began seeking buyers in June last year. A stalking-horse method—securing a conditional acquirer first and then proceeding with an open bid—was initially reviewed, but no candidate was found to sign a preliminary contract.
In the end, Homeplus Co. shifted to an open competitive bidding process in October of the same year. Two parties, including Harex InfoTech and Snowmad, submitted letters of intent, but neither took part in the main bid in November that year. As no investor emerged with firm financing commitments and a concrete business plan, the wholesale sale of Homeplus Co. fell through without a final bidder.
In the meantime, NongHyup, Coupang, Alibaba, BGF, CJ, and Shinsegae had been cited as potential buyers, and some of them did review an acquisition, but the sale ultimately did not go through.
Analysts say this sale has become far more difficult than last year's wholesale sale. Homeplus Express, for which the sale probability was relatively high, has already been spun off and sold, and what remains are the hypermarket and online segments, which must shoulder large-scale staffing, store rent, and logistics costs. In addition to the purchase price, an acquirer must inject more operating funds to normalize merchandise inventory and restore transaction relationships with suppliers.