GS E&C to sell assets to ease cash shortage
February 9, 2014 Leave a comment
2014-02-07 16:25
GS E&C to sell assets to ease cash shortage
By Yi Whan-woo
GS Engineering & Construction (E&C) plans to sell its luxury hotel operator to secure capital and ease a liquidity shortage, the company said Friday. Its debt ratio reached 276.9 percent last year.
The construction arm of GS Group is the biggest shareholder of Parnas Hotel with a 67.56 percent stake.
The builder said it included the operator of the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas and InterContinental Seoul Coex in Samseong-dong on its list of assets under consideration for sale.
“We’re open to selling all of our assets to secure liquidity, and Parnas Hotel is one of them,” a GS E&C spokesman said.
The country’s No. 8 builder estimated that the price of the Parnas Hotel could be as high as 1 trillion won.
GS E&C added that it is considering offloading two areas of land in Seoul currently used as sites for display homes. The estimated market value of the two tracts combined is 200 billion won, the builder said.
It also said it is considering issuing new stocks.
“A paid-in capital increase is under consideration although we have not decided when and how much we’ll increase it by,” GS E&C said.
The announcement came after the builder suffered an operating loss of 937.3 billion won ($871.74 million) in 2013.
Market observers said such losses will add to woes of GS E&C that has 520 billion won of corporate bonds due this year.
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