Chairman Park Sam-koo of Kumho-Asiana Group met with President Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam on Nov. 19 at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi and discussed the economic issues related to increased investment by the group in Vietnam and economic cooperation between Korea and Vietnam.
Chairman Park told the Chief of State of Vietnam that the group would keep investing in the S.E. Asian country in diverse business areas as it has been doing steadily in the past two decades since the opening of the diplomatic relations between Korea and Vietnam. He pointed out especially, the culture and arts areas as the areas where the group’s future investments would come.
The Vietnamese Chief Executive highly praised the group’s investments in Vietnam and social service activities, the group said.
Chairman Park met the Vietnamese president for the second time this year with the chairman getting the Medal of Friendship, the highest medal issued by the Vietnamese government, from the president in March. Park met the president for nine times in total so far.
Kumho-Asiana Group set up the Kumho-Asiana Scholarship Foundation in 2007 with the money donated from its major affiliates including Kumho Tire, Kumho Construction and Asiana Airlines. $2 million in total and has been providing scholarships to students in Vietnam every year since then.
In the meantime, Chairman Park is expected to get back the management rights of Kumho Industry from the creditors of the company in the first half of next year. The creditor group has decided to sell the entire shares they hold from converting their loans to the company’s shares with the workout period for the company extended for another two years which was to be terminated at the end of this year. The creditors of the company voted on the issue of take over and M&A for the company during their meeting on Nov. 11. The decision they agreed include the provision that the workout period for Kumho Industry will be terminated when the sale of the company is completed.
The creditors will select the lead manager for the sale within this month and put up the notice for sale in January and complete the sale in the first half of the new year.
Kumho-Asiana welcomes the first refusal right given to the group by the creditors and will take back the company during the first half of next year and end the workout to ensure normal operation of the company.
The group has been considering a number of options including the chairman’s son Park Se-chang, vice president of Kumho Tire exercising the right alone and take back Kumho Industry or doing it together with his father, the chairman and a number of the group’s affiliates such as Asiana Airlines. They figure they need some 300 billion won in funds to buy back the company from the creditors.
The Chairman’s side has the right to purchase ‘50%+1’ stake in the company. They can take over 16.5 million shares or half of 33 million shares of the company for the current share price of 14,000 for 230 billion won in addition to the premium for the management rights to make total stake price to around 300 billion won.
Asiana Airlines is forbidden from providing funds to its affiliates, especially to Kumho Industry, the company being the majority shareholder of the airlines but other affiliates can by reshuffling their stake holder order in a round-about way.
High-ranking officials of the airlines said they will try to find the ways to provide funds to the chairman’side by taking out loans with its capital and shares as mortgage and other means available through reshuffling of its financial structure.
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