HDC Hyundai Pressured to Hasten Asiana Airlines Acquisition

HDC Hyundai Development is expected to expedite its acquisition of Asiana Airlines after the latter accepted the creditors' funding plan and raised its debt limit.

Asiana Airlines has agreed to the terms and conditions of additional support with the creditors, Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM), who recently established a credit line (CL) of 1,229.3 billion won and 480.7 billion won, respectively.

Last year, both creditors also provided 1.6 trillion won to Asiana Airlines.

Their credit was meant to help Asiana Airlines survive its liquidity crunch.

The carrier's debt-to-equity ratio increased considerably from the end of last year, and the amount it needs to repay creditors this year inflated from 1.7 trillion won to 2.5 trillion won.

On top of its debt, Asiana Airlines also has fixed monthly costs of 200 billion won to 300 billion won.

The creditors were reportedly considering turning Asiana's permanent bonds they hold into equity, and the additional support creates more pressure on HDC to expedite the takeover.

The acquisition process has been slow with HDC Hyundai Development even delaying the repayment of borrowings and a capital increase plan with the two creditors.

The reluctance was due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which sank the aviation industry into its liquidity crisis.