MBK Partners announced that Chairman Kim Byeong-joo has never expressed his intention to refuse 'grants' of more than 1 trillion won.

On the 20th, Homeplus and its holding company MBK Partners stated through a press release, "It is true that Chairman Kim Byeong-joo had a meeting at the National Assembly, but the main topic of the meeting was an explanation of future plans for the recovery of Homeplus and a request for cooperation."

A view of the Homeplus Tanbang store in Tanbang-dong, Seo-gu, Daejeon./Courtesy of News1

The meeting reportedly discussed that pre-approval M&A is the best method for the recovery of Homeplus and that they would cooperate for this purpose.

They conveyed that, to facilitate the smooth progress of pre-approval M&A, existing shareholder MBK will voluntarily write off 2.5 trillion won of its common stock investment, and that Chairman Kim Byeong-joo alone is currently bearing about 300 billion won in financial burdens, with over 100 billion won from his personal contributions and 150 billion won from MBK.

In particular, there were no inquiries or demands about whether Chairman Kim Byeong-joo would 'grant' 1 trillion won for the recovery of Homeplus, and he has not disclosed his position on this matter.

They noted, "One National Assembly official questioned us, misunderstanding the explanation from MBK Partners that during the 2015 acquisition of Homeplus, the company would not take annual operating profits of up to 800 billion won as 'dividends' but would invest 1 trillion won, and they incorrectly understood this as '1 trillion won grant at acquisition.'"

They also added, "We clarified the misunderstanding by explaining that we have invested nearly 1 trillion won over the past 10 years in capital expenditures (Capex) for the company’s development."

Earlier, some media outlets reported that Chairman Kim stated during a private meeting with members of the National Policy Committee on the 13th that he would not 'grant' more than 1 trillion won.