[2020 National Audit] Kamco's 'Asset Purchase and Lease' Support Takes an Average of 165 Days

Assemblyman Kim Byung-wook: "Prompt Support Must Follow According to the Purpose"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] The Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO)'s "Sale and Leaseback Program," which supplies liquidity to struggling companies to support business normalization, has been criticized for taking an average of 165 days, indicating the need for faster processing.

On the 20th, Kim Byung-wook, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, revealed based on data submitted by KAMCO that since the introduction of the Sale and Leaseback system in 2015, it has taken over five months on average to decide on target companies as of August this year.

From 2015 to August this year, a total of 44 companies received support from KAMCO's Sale and Leaseback program, accounting for 5.8% of all applicants (760 companies). The average time taken from application to final selection was 165 days. The largest number of companies, 13, took between 101 and 150 days from application to selection, and there were also 7 cases where it took more than 250 days.

Assemblyman Kim said, "The Sale and Leaseback program is a system where KAMCO acquires assets of temporarily struggling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under a lease conditional sales contract to support rapid business normalization," adding, "Since the Sale and Leaseback system is intended to support the swift business normalization of SMEs experiencing temporary management difficulties, prompt support must follow accordingly. KAMCO should play a more proactive role by conducting faster reviews so that more companies can benefit."