JoongAng Ilbo [Yonhap News]

Hanyang Securities requested early repayment of JoongAng Ilbo's commercial paper (CP) worth 22 billion won, but JoongAng Ilbo stated that it is difficult to provide individual early repayment to a specific creditor.

According to JoongAng Ilbo on the 18th, Hanyang Securities requested early repayment of CPs worth 12 billion won due on December 7th of this year and CPs worth 10 billion won due on March 30th of next year. JoongAng Ilbo explained that this request was due to "the occurrence of an Event of Default (EOD)."

'Event of Default' is a contractual clause that allows a creditor to demand repayment before maturity if specific reasons, such as a credit rating downgrade, occur. In JoongAng Ilbo's case, following JTBC's declaration of default, credit rating agencies successively downgraded its credit rating. Consequently, on the 16th, the company announced the occurrence of an Event of Default for four types of corporate bonds.

In a statement released today, JoongAng Ilbo said, "JoongAng Ilbo, which is currently pursuing workout (corporate restructuring) with its main creditor bank, must maintain fairness among all creditors. Therefore, it is difficult to provide early repayment before maturity individually to a specific creditor."

It added, "This is an unavoidable measure to ensure the successful progress of the workout and protect the interests of the entire creditor group. JoongAng Ilbo will continue to cooperate closely with the main creditor bank and the creditors to faithfully implement the normalization of management."

On the 17th, JoongAng Ilbo also issued a statement regarding the Event of Default for its corporate bonds, stating, "We inform you that we cannot comply with this (request for early repayment) in accordance with the relevant procedures to maintain fairness among creditors."

Hanyang Securities is known to have an exposure of approximately 84 billion won to JoongAng Group affiliates such as JoongAng Ilbo and JTBC. Hanyang Securities issued a press release yesterday, stating that "collections are proceeding smoothly" and predicting that "a cumulative 44.6 billion won will be collected by the end of September, and 73.1 billion won by the end of the year."