Kumho Asiana said Wednesday that Chairman Park Sam-koo will not buy back a controlling stake in Kumho Tire from creditors if they do not provide a definitive answer on the conditions of the sale.

“If Kumho Asiana does not receive an answer from Korea Development Bank by April 17, it will not exercise its right of first refusal on the sale of Kumho Tire,” the group said in a statement.

The Kumho Tire creditors’ association, led by Korea Development Bank, signed a stock purchase agreement with Chinese tiremaker Doublestar last month to sell a 42 percent controlling stake in the company.

Park had reserved right of first refusal on the sale when the tire company was first handed over to creditors as part of a debt restructuring deal in 2009.

KDB has informed Kumho Asiana that Park would be required to take action on his right of first refusal by April 19 or forfeit the sale to Doublestar.

In order to raise funds for the buyback, Park had requested that creditors allow him to form a consortium of strategic investors. However, creditors voted to disallow a consortium, and had not answered Kumho Asiana’s requests to send over the specific conditions of its agreement with Doublestar.

Kumho Asiana claimed that it was “clearly unfair and self-contradictory” that Doublestar was permitted to form a consortium of six companies while Kumho Asiana was not.

Although creditors said that it would be open to reviewing a consortium for Kumho Asiana if Park submitted a detailed plan for funding the buyback, Kumho Asiana claimed that “there are no strategic investors willing to participate in a consortium without prior permission to form a consortium.”

According to the company, attempting to buy back the stake in Kumho Tire only with the help of financial investors would be a “potential risk with huge influence over all of Kumho Asiana Group.” 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)