The conflict between Homeplus and Shin Young Securities over Homeplus's card payment asset-backed short-term bonds (ABSTB·Asset-Backed Electronic Short-Term Bonds) is intensifying.
According to the retail industry, on May 28, Homeplus filed a complaint with the prosecution against Kim Jungho, CEO of Shin Young Securities, on charges including credit defamation. Credit defamation is established when a person's credit is damaged by the dissemination of false information or by deception.
Since August 2022, Shin Young Securities has been the lead manager for the issuance of Homeplus's commercial papers (CP), electronic short-term bonds (ESTB), and ABSTB. It is known that Homeplus raised issues with CEO Kim's remarks during an urgent inquiry by the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee in March.
At that time, CEO Kim stated, "A downgrade in credit rating does not necessarily mean that demand for ESTB will decrease." He also said, "It does not make sense to claim that a company would be unable to raise funds and have to file for corporate rehabilitation simply because its rating was downgraded."
Shin Young Securities and ABSTB investors claim that Homeplus was aware in advance of the impending credit rating downgrade and planned to file for corporate rehabilitation on March 4, but concealed this fact and continued to issue ABSTB until February 25, just one week before the filing, thereby causing losses. The prosecution is also conducting an investigation into this matter.
However, Homeplus maintains that it was not involved in the issuance of ABSTB at all. Instead, the company argues that it is necessary to determine whether Shin Young Securities engaged in misselling by selling ABSTB to investors even after becoming aware of Homeplus's credit rating downgrade.
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