Creditors agree to HMM debt extension

The Korea Development Bank and other lenders have agreed to give the Korean shipping conglomerate a three-month debt extension, according to multiple local media reports.    Creditors of Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), led by the Korea Development Bank, on Tuesday agreed to allow the shipping conglomerate to “roll over maturing debt and interest by three months,” according to a report from the Yonhap news agency in Korea.
   In a separate article, the Korea Herald quoted a statement from KDB, which said, “The agreement is based on the condition that all interested parties including ship owners and nonsecured creditors share the burden together.”
   Last week a similar effort to rollover debt was rejected by some creditors, but the Korea Development Bank had promised a second effort today, which was a success.
   Hyundai, which reported a loss of about $359 million last year, is seeking to right its finances with a “self-rescue plan” that involves debt extension, renegotiating charters, sale of assets and injections of new capital. The company’s outstanding debt is estimated at around 4.8 trillion won (U.S. $4.1 billion), and the firm has 120 billion won (U.S. $103.5 million) of bonds due in April and 240 billion won (U.S. $207 million) of bonds due in July.