[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Ssangyong Motor and Edison Motors Consortium, who have been engaged in a battle of nerves even before signing the main contract for the merger and acquisition (M&A), are now clashing over the selection of a third-party administrator.
According to the legal and industry circles on the 22nd, Edison Motors recently requested the Seoul Rehabilitation Court through its legal representative, law firm KCL, to appoint an additional third-party administrator. It is reported that they demanded the addition of an administrator with a high level of understanding of the electric vehicle market and technology.
The third-party administrator recommended by Edison Motors is Lee Seung-chul, who served as Executive Director of the Purchasing Headquarters at Ssangyong Motor. After leaving Ssangyong Motor in 2010, he served as Vice President in charge of purchasing at China's Geely Automobile.
It is known that Edison Motors recruited Vice President Lee, who is well-versed in the domestic automobile market and the electric vehicle sector, while preparing for the acquisition of Ssangyong Motor last year.
On the other hand, the existing Ssangyong Motor administrator, Jeong Yong-won, submitted a statement opposing Edison Motors' request on the 12th. Ssangyong Motor pointed out that if personnel specialized in electric vehicle technology and sales are needed, the procedure of hiring employees or appointing advisors should be followed.
Moreover, since the M&A has not been completed and rehabilitation procedures such as persuading creditors and holding stakeholder meetings remain, the concern is that appointing an external person rather than an internal Ssangyong Motor official as administrator could lead to risks of technology leakage.
Typically, there is only one rehabilitation administrator, and if conflicts arise in a co-administrator system recommended by different companies, there is a high possibility of problems occurring in the rehabilitation process. Therefore, the industry expects that the court is unlikely to appoint an additional third-party administrator.
However, Edison Motors believes that since Ssangyong Motor is in a special situation, joint management through an industry expert from Ssangyong Motor would facilitate smoother progress of future schedules.
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