LG Card needs another $1.1b

LG Card needs another $1.1b

SEOUL: South Korea's state-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB), the main creditor of LG Card, said Wednesday it is pursuing another debt-equity swap to the tune of more than US$1 billion as part of efforts to rescue the country's largest credit card issuer.

A report by financial experts suggests that LG Card, just rescued in January this year, needs a massive capital write-down and an additional 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion) of fresh capital to avoid having to be delisted from the Korea Stock Exchange, a senior KDB official said.

Under current securities law, a firm with losses exceeding 50 percent of iots capital for two years in a row faces delisting.

Last year, LG Card's losses surpassed 50 percent of its capital and the company was put under surveillance by the Korea Stock Exchange. -- AFP