South Korean prosecutors requested a warrant on Wednesday to arrest Kim Byung-ju, chairman of private equity firm MBK Partners, over its sale of troubled supermarket chain Homeplus.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office filed warrant requests for Kim and three other people on charges of fraud and breach of the Capital Markets Act, a spokesperson for the Office said.
South Korean prosecutors are investigating whether MBK Partners approved Homeplus’ debt issue in 2025 despite prior knowledge of a credit downgrade, which potentially could have resulted in investor losses.
MBK Partners is also under investigation by the financial market watchdog, which has not yet concluded.
MBK Partners has rejected the allegations and said in a statement: “The request is inconsistent with the established facts and rests on a distorted interpretation of events, and MBK Partners will strongly challenge the warrant applications in court to reject them.”
In June, the Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved a plan to appoint accounting firm Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers to manage the sale after MBK in March filed for a court-led restructuring of the grocery retailer to avoid bankruptcy.
Homeplus has not yet made progress in finding new owners, according to local media reports.
Reuters
