South Korea's top economic official Yoo Il-ho warned Thursday of a court receivership and flatly ruled out the use of more state money to save Hyundai Merchant Marine from a credit crisis.
"The government cannot sit still if there is no progress in negotiations on lease rates," Yoo, who also serves as finance minister, told reporters. "We have no choice but to opt for a court receivership. There is no additional government assistance anymore."
The warning was seen as a strong, and probably final, message that Hyundai Merchant should make all-out efforts to slash lease rates before its financial crisis gets uncontrollable.
Hyundai Merchant has been reeling from a snowballing debt. Last year it posted 253.5 billion won (221.0 million US dollars) in operating losses amid a protracted slump in the shipping industry.
Creditors have urged the company to ride out its liquidity crisis through aggressive restructuring and sales of non-core assets. Hyundai Merchant is saddled with a total debt of about four billion dollars.
In response, the company has sought to sell its oil-carrier business. The company was put under co-management by creditors late last month, and its maturing debt and interest were rolled over by three months.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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