[THE INVESTOR] MBK Partners on July 8 denied that the nation's largest equity firm will receive hefty dividends from Homeplus, a cash-strapped supermarket chain that it acquired from Britain’s Tesco last year.

Homeplus Holdings, the de facto holding company of Homeplus, has recently decided to pay an interim dividend of 30,612 won (US$26) per share on 700,000 preferred shares owned by its largest shareholder Korea Retail Investment.

Following the decision, recent news reports said, MBK, which owns 100 percent of Korea Retail Investment, will receive 21.4 billion won (US$18 million) in dividends.

But the company denied the reports and the stake ownership, saying: “Korea Retail Investment consists of three funds and the latest dividends will go to institutional investors of the first fund. MBK will not be paid this time.”

The company declined to further elaborate on more detailed shareholding structure of Korea Retail Investment. 
 

In October last year, MBK acquired 100 percent stake in Homeplus from Tesco for 7.2 trillion won in a consortium with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Public Service Pension Plan of Canada, and Temasek Holdings.

To fund the acquisition, MBK borrowed 4.3 trillion won from financial institutions.

At the time, the firm pledged to invest 1 trillion won over the next two years in order to strengthen Homeplus’ competitiveness. But thus far no investment has been made.

Since the ownership change, Homeplus, the nation’s No. 2 supermarket chain, suffered an operating loss last year for the first time since 2002. Operating loss of Homeplus Holdings also increased from 8 billion won in 2014 to 14.6 billion won last year.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)