Kumho Tire exits debt programme

On 23 December, Kumho Tire emerged from the debt workout programme it was placed under at the start of 2010. More than 75 per cent of the company’s creditors, in terms of debt held, decided that Kumho Tire had reached the threshold for ‘graduating’ from the programme. The tyre maker’s debt ratio, which hit a high of 858 per cent in 2010, declined to 290 per cent during the first half of 2014. Its credit rating also improved from BBB- to BBB.

Over 42 per cent of all shares in Kumho Tire are held by nine creditors, the largest of which are the Woori Bank and Korea Development Bank, which respectively hold a 14 per cent and 13.5 per cent share. The creditors intend to hold an open bid to dispose of their combined stake in the tyre maker, and Kumho Asiana chairman Park Sam-goo and his family, which now holds a 7.9 per cent stake in the company, maintains the right to repurchase the shares owned by the creditors.

Asiana Airlines graduated from a voluntary workout programme earlier in November, while it was decided in November that Kumho Industrial would be ready to do so before the end of 2014.