A Seoul court on Tuesday supported Hyundai Construction and Engineering creditors’ cancellation of a preliminary contract to sell their controlling stakes to Hyundai Group.

The ruling cleared the way for them to open negotiations with Hyundai Motor Group, which was initially beat out in one of Korea’s biggest acquisition battles.

Creditors including Korea Exchange Bank said that they would decide soon whether to begin talks with the automobile giant.

In November, Hyundai Group was picked as preferred bidder to take over 34.88 percent of the nation’s largest builder.

But creditors scrapped the contract after the group failed to clear up suspicions about its ability to fund the 5.5 trillion won ($4.7 billion) purchase.

Hyundai Group filed for an injunction with the Seoul Central District Court on Dec. 10 against the creditors’ decision and further requested that the court block Hyundai E&C from being sold to Hyundai Motor Group.

“With the ruling, we will hold a shareholder’s meeting as soon as possible to determine whether to launch sale talks with preliminary bidder Hyundai Motor Group,” the creditors said in a statement.

Hyundai Group said that it will appeal the ruling.

Hyundai had rejected the creditors’ demand to submit loan contracts with the Paris-based Natixis bank to verify its claim that it borrowed the money without collateral or third-party guarantees.



By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)