이 기사는 2021년 04월 28일 07시37분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

SsangYong Motor, which was recently put under court receivership, has started a process to select its advisor to sell itself.

The Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved the corporate rehabilitation procedure of the cash-strapped South Korean affiliate of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra on April 15, industry sources said on Monday. As supervising accounting firm in charge, EY Hanyoung is required to submit its financial report on SsangYong to the court by June 10 and the carmaker has to submit its renewed rehabilitation plan by July 1.

With SsangYong going into the rehabilitation procedures, accounting firms have been working to receive mandate to handle the sale process. It has been widely expected that one of the country’s top four accounting firms will be selected as an advisor except for Samjong KPMG which is an auditor of SsangYong.

Samil PwC had advised U.S.-based HAAH Automotive Holdings, which had been in negotiations with the carmaker. The accounting firm is said to have earned a lot of advisory fee by conducting due diligence on behalf of HAAH for about a year before the carmaker entered the rehabilitation process. Samil PwC is reportedly not active in the selection process as it advised HAAH.

Deloitte Anjin reportedly advised Korea Development Bank when SsangYong was in autonomous negotiations with creditors after entering the rehabilitation process, leaving EY Hanyoung the sole candidate to work with the carmaker as it had not been involved in the previous sale process.

The court generally puts emphasis on the efficiency of a sale when selecting a sale advisor. In this regard, a supervising firm which is in charge of evaluating a company's value as a going concern and liquidation value through due diligence is highly likely to be selected as an advisor.

SsangYong will start the sale process in earnest after it receives approval from the court and finalizes the selection of its advisor.

The automaker’s rehabilitation procedures may be cancelled if it fails to secure a new acquirer within the court receivership program timeline, making its renewed plan even more important for its rehabilitation procedure. (Reporting by Seon-young Kim)