[비즈한국] Struggling to escape the risk of delisting, PeopleBio304840 has finally turned to its second-largest shareholder for a high-interest loan. This contract, in which even a strategic investor (SI) demanded clear collateral rather than equity investment, suggests that PeopleBio's liquidity crisis has reached a breaking point.
On the 16th, PeopleBio's board of directors resolved to take out a short-term loan of 5 billion won for operating funds from its second-largest shareholder, iMarketKorea. The annual interest rate is 7.5%, and the maturity is set for one year later on January 16, 2027.
This borrowing is interpreted as a desperate measure to secure operating funds as cash is rapidly drying up. Current assets, which stood at 17.1 billion won at the end of 2024 on a consolidated basis, shrank to 10.6 billion won by the third quarter of last year, with cash and cash equivalents, in particular, being halved from 1.261 billion won to 577 million won.
Some in the industry are noting that iMarketKorea, which has been a major shareholder since 2018, chose to provide a cash loan. As of the end of September last year, iMarketKorea is a strategic investor (SI) holding a 5.71% stake, including common and preferred shares. Typically, when a company is in trouble, an SI would either participate in a capital increase to boost equity or provide funds at a low interest rate.
However, iMarketKorea opted for a loan that guarantees the recovery of the principal instead of additional investment. This could be interpreted as a signal that iMarketKorea has doubts about PeopleBio's growth potential.
Furthermore, PeopleBio has set a collateral mortgage on the 98.3 billion won worth of real estate currently undergoing acquisition to ensure repayment. If PeopleBio fails to repay the loan, including interest, amounting to 5.375 billion won by January next year, iMarketKorea can execute the collateral mortgage and put the property up for auction. In effect, the real estate acquired to prevent being designated as an administrative issue is now at risk of being lost to debt.
While PeopleBio has addressed its immediate cash crunch, the pressure to repay the loan is expected to intensify. The annual interest on the loan for the acquired real estate is estimated to be between 3.2 billion and 3.6 billion won. Adding this to the repayment of the current loan, the company must secure nearly 9 billion won in cash by the end of this year. Given its annual rental income of 2.6 billion won and annual revenue in the 4 billion won range, this scale is difficult for the company to handle.
PeopleBio is considering selling assets to secure liquidity. However, selling the real estate it acquired to resolve the "loss before income tax expenses" (which is a criterion for designation as an administrative issue) could reignite the very problem it was meant to address, further deepening PeopleBio's dilemma. A PeopleBio official stated, "We are thinking more about liquidity through methods like selling rather than obtaining rental income from the recently acquired real estate assets," adding, "If we sell, we believe we will have sufficient capacity to repay the loans."