Kumho-Asiana Business Group Chairman Park Sam-koo. Kumho-Asiana Group reacquires Kumho Buslines.(Photo:Kumho-Asiana Group)

Chairman Park Sam-koo of Kumho Asiana Group has succeeded in reacquiring Kumho Buslines, a predecessor of the group, whose management rights were handed over to creditors for 415 billion won, signaling the group’s resuscitation. The deal is expected to galvanize the bid to reacquire Kumho Industrial, the group’s de facto holding company. 

Kumho Asiana Group said on May 26 that it struck an agreement to purchase the 100 percent share of Kumho Buslines, the private equity fund jointly run by IBK Investment & Securities and Keistone Partners possessed. 

The deal also calls for Kumho Asiana Group’s acquiring of the 48.8 percent share in Kumho Resort owned by Kumho Buslines. 

The group dropped a 50 billion won down payment on May 27, and the remainder will be paid after the Fair Trade Commission gives a go-ahead on the deal. 

“We’ve managed to wrap up the purchase of Kumho Buslines through an amicable agreement,” a group official said. Starting with the reacquiring of Kumho Buslines, the group will accelerate its bid to rebuild itself, he added. 

In the face of a 2012 liquidity crisis, Kumho Asiana Group handed over 100 percent interest in Kumho Buslines to IBK Fund for 330 billion won on the condition that Kumho Terminal, a subsidiary of the group, would be guaranteed to exercise preferred rights to buy a 100 percent stake of Kumho Buslines once its operations are normalized.

The IBK Fund had held sole negotiations with the group to return investments since this past February. The negotiations hit a snag as Kumho Asiana Group insisted on acquiring only Kumho Buslines, and not the 48.8 percent stake in Kumho Resort. 

Neither side budged from their original stance, even though the deadline for negotiating the preferred rights to buy back a stake was supposed to run out May 26. They concluded a deal eventually after each side made concessions. 

Chairman Koo reportedly made up his mind to reacquire Kumho Resort on the perspective of rebuilding the group, even though the group had the preferred right to demand to purchase only Kumho Buslines. In return, the IBK Fund agreed to dispose of Kumho Buslines for 415 billion won, some 10 percent lower than the offer price of 450 billion won. Kumho Asiana Group’s initial plan to team up with Consus Asset Management Co. to form a consortium to take over Kumho Buslines failed to be materialized, as the IBK Fund insisted on Kumho Terminal’s sole purchase. Finally, the group accepted the IBK Fund’s proposal, paving the way for the deal. 

Kumho Terminal received 500 billion won in rental deposit money for renting Gwangju Integrated Bus Terminal from Kwangju Shinsaegye in 2013. Out of the total, 300 billion in reserve money will be utilized to reacquire Kumho Buslines. 

Chairman Park’s acquiring of Kumho Buslines dates back to the late founder and his father Park In-cheon. The late Park established Kwangju Passenger Automobile Co., the predecessor of Kumho Buslines, in Gwangju in 1948.