Ballan, Ultimately Files for Corporate Rehabilitation... "M&A to be Pursued This Week"

Difficulty in Attracting Investment Leads to Liquidity Crunch
"Rehabilitation Filing Is a Recovery Process to Establish a Business Foundation"

Luxury online platform Balan announced on the 31st that it has filed for corporate rehabilitation proceedings (court receivership) at the Seoul Bankruptcy Court.

Choi Hyung-rok, CEO of Balan, stated on the day, "We partially proceeded with the planned investment attraction within the first quarter, but contrary to initial expectations, additional funding was delayed, leading to a short-term liquidity crunch," and "we applied for corporate rehabilitation proceedings to stably repay the commercial claims of our partners and to enhance the sustainability of the Balan platform."

CEO Choi described this rehabilitation filing as a recovery process to establish a sustainable business foundation. He explained, "There has been no financial damage to general consumers," and "the amount of unpaid commercial claims is less than Balan's monthly transaction volume." Balan's monthly transaction volume is estimated to be around 30 billion KRW.

He added, "Since March, we have structurally reduced coupons and various costs to secure a profitable base, so if the short-term liquidity issues are resolved through the rehabilitation process, we can quickly return to normal."

In the announcement on the day, CEO Choi also expressed intentions to ▲ attract buyers before rehabilitation approval ▲ fully repay unpaid claims ▲ restore a stable settlement base and trading environment ▲ continue transactions with partners and pursue mutual growth.

Regarding buyer attraction, CEO Choi said, "We plan to designate a sales agent this week to actively proceed with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) alongside the rehabilitation process," and "this decision aims to rapidly improve business stability and growth potential by attracting external buyers and significantly enhancing future cash flow."

CEO Choi stated, "Balan has almost no secured creditors or financial debts, so the most important creditors in this rehabilitation process are our partners," and "since partners are the key stakeholders determining the platform's future, we will actively listen to and reflect sellers' opinions (meeting schedules will be announced separately)."