"Value Plummets by Two-Thirds"... Concerns Mount Over JoongAng Group Corporate Bond Crash

[Anchor]

As major affiliates of JoongAng Group have filed for corporate rehabilitation, concerns over losses for those who invested in the group's corporate bonds are growing. Individual investors have announced plans to hold a protest in front of the JTBC building the day after tomorrow (the 19th).

Reporter Kim Hye-min has the story.

[Reporter]

In February, a person in their 50s, identified as A, and their children purchased 150 million won worth of JTBC corporate bonds on the open market.

Since JTBC filed for corporate rehabilitation on the 12th, the bond prices have plummeted to one-third of their original value.

[A / JTBC Corporate Bond Investor: It seems like they earn about 100,000 won working overnight shifts at Coupang. That is the money my son saved up... For three days, I felt so choked up that I couldn't swallow anything.]

There are four types of listed bonds issued by JTBC. Their prices, which were around 9,000 to 10,000 won on the 12th, have fallen to the 3,000-won range as of today.

The prices of listed corporate bonds for the JoongAng Ilbo, the parent company of the group, have also seen a sharp decline.

JoongAng Ilbo disclosed that an event of default has occurred regarding four of its listed corporate bond issues, totaling 137 billion won.

This means that because the debtor is in a state where it is difficult to repay its debts, creditors can demand repayment even before the maturity date. However, JoongAng Ilbo stated that since it is pursuing a workout, it cannot comply with demands for early repayment.

The outstanding balance of JoongAng Group's corporate bonds is 820 billion won, and it is estimated that a portion of this was sold to individual investors.

[Lee Min-kyu / Lawyer: There is a very high risk that they will not be fully repaid. Since debt repayment is prohibited while rehabilitation procedures are underway, they can only be repaid once a rehabilitation plan is approved later.]

Individual investors argue that selling high-interest corporate bonds just four months before filing for rehabilitation indicates that JoongAng Group and the brokerage firms ignored the risks despite being aware of them. They announced plans to hold a protest in front of the JTBC building the day after tomorrow.

The brokerage firms that managed the bond issuance explained that they made judgments based on objective data and that credit ratings and risk factors could be checked on the bond trading platform.

Financial supervisory authorities have begun an inspection of the brokerage firms involved to determine if there were any instances of mis-selling.

(Video reporting: Park Hyun-chul, Video editing: Kim Jong-mi)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.