Kumho Tire deadline approaching

It won’t be a Good Friday for Kumho Tire if an agreement between its creditors and the labour union representing its workforce isn’t reached by the end of this week. Friday 30 March is the deadline set for a formal consensus regarding the sale of a 45 per cent share in the tyre maker to China’s Qingdao Doublestar Tire for KRW 646.3 billion (£421.7 million).

While the labour union has publicly voiced strong opposition to Doublestar Tire becoming a Kumho Tire major shareholder, Lee Dong-Gull, chairman of main creditor Korea Development Bank (KDB), claims the union made a “verbal agreement” to the sale of Kumho Tire during a closed-door meeting last Friday. Reporting Lee’s assertion, The Korea Herald writes that the KDB chairman accused the labour union of “failing to take follow-up measures.” Specifically, it left a draft statement covering this alleged agreement unsigned and then suggested that a South Korean company is interested in buying Kumho Tire.

Should these follow-up measures not come prior to the creditors’ deadline of this Friday, Kumho Tire will be forced into a debt workout programme.