Homeplus Plans to Sell 19 Stores and Use Secured Loans to Repay Debts

Homeplus announced plans to sell its owned stores among the 37 locations that are closing, using the proceeds to repay secured trust bondholders if its rehabilitation plan is approved.

In a statement on August 20, Homeplus said, "Once the rehabilitation plan is approved, we will immediately begin selling 19 of the 37 closed stores we own, with the goal of completing the sales by February 2028."

The company explained, "The proceeds from the sale of these 19 owned stores will be used to address the claims of secured trust bondholders, and we believe we can fully repay them with these funds."

Homeplus added, "Once we fully repay the secured trust bonds, the collateral will be released, allowing us to utilize the stores we own for real estate secured loans."

The company plans to take out real estate secured loans against 38 owned stores in two phases, in February 2030 and February 2037, to repay debts. The estimated appraisal value of these stores is approximately 2.8 trillion won.

Homeplus stated, "In 2030, we will take out a small secured loan relative to our asset size to repay debts, and in 2037, we plan to expand the loan to a typical real estate secured loan size to cover any outstanding debts, including those from the 2030 loan."

The company believes it can manage the debt repayment burden based on cash generation from normalizing operations. Homeplus projected that by 2030, all 67 stores will be fully operational, generating annual sales of 4.3 trillion won and an operating profit of 162.8 billion won. By 2037, operating profit is expected to increase to 218.2 billion won, with an annual surplus cash flow of between 150 billion and 300 billion won, which will not pose an operational burden.

Meanwhile, the deadline for the approval of Homeplus's rehabilitation plan is set for next month, on September 4.