As Homeplus Co.'s delays in settling payments for supplied goods drag on, management difficulties among partner small merchants appear to be deepening.
The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises on the 23rd released the results of a survey titled "Homeplus small merchant settlement delay fact-finding," conducted on 150 small merchants experiencing delays in Homeplus Co. settlement of payments for supplied goods.
The survey was conducted to identify the scale of damage and management conditions among small partner companies after Homeplus Co. entered corporate rehabilitation proceedings in March last year, and to prepare effective support measures.
According to the survey, 76.7% of respondent corporations said they are currently experiencing management difficulties due to delayed settlement of payments.
The average amount of unsettled supply payments, excluding the maximum and minimum values, came to 774 million won. Corporations that have not received 500 million won or more reached 40.7%. Specifically, 500 million to less than 1 billion won accounted for 16.7%, and 1 billion won or more for 24.0%.
As for the difficulties caused by settlement delays (multiple responses), delays in paying for purchases of raw and subsidiary materials and subcontract payments (85.3%) were the most common. They were followed by shortages of essential operating funds such as for new product development and marketing (65.3%), delays in paying wages and the risk of workforce departures (24.7%), and the burden of repaying bank loans and the risk of credit rating downgrades (10.0%).
The most urgent measures requested by affected small merchants (multiple responses) were funding (loans) support from the creditor group (such as Meritz) using the Express sale proceeds as collateral and priority settlement (95.3%); government support for emergency management stabilization funds and expansion of low-interest special loans (44.0%); and strengthening the payment system, such as mandating third-party escrow of supply payments (39.3%).
Kim Hee-jung, head of the Economic Policy Headquarters at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises, said, "As Homeplus Co.'s settlement delay situation has prolonged for months, small merchants supplying goods are facing an unexpected liquidity crisis," and added, "The survival of partner companies must be secured for Homeplus Co.'s normalization to be possible."