JoongAng Group Files for Court Receivership – Manageable Burden

Research evidence excerpt

JoongAng Group Files for Court Receivership – Manageable Burden

Update

June 17, 2026 12:21 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Seoul Branch+MS. Korea Financials – Banks | Asia Pacific Joon Seok

Equity Analyst

JoongAng Group Files for Court Joon.Seok@morganstanley.com +82 2 399-4934

Receivership – Manageable

Burden S. Korea Financials

Asia Pacific

Industry View Attractive

Key Takeaways

Korean banks had a 4~5% correction today (KOSPI +1.6%) after a healthy three

day run-up since June 12 (top three banks up 10~14% vs. KOSPI 12.4%).

The news on JoongAng Group's insolvency was a drag, but we believe that this

should be more of an isolated event than an industry issue.

Conventional wisdom points to the main bank of a corporate group – in this case,

Hana Bank – having higher exposure than other banks.

However, with a high level of collateralization for all the banks, we think the

provisioning burden related to JoongAng Group should be quite manageable.

According to press (Korea Times, June 16, 2026), five affiliates of JoongAng Group –

JoongAng Holdings, JTBC, ContentreeJoongAng, Megabox JoongAng, and JoongAng

P&I – have entered the court receivership process following JTBC’s default on

W20.6 billion of securitized borrowings on June 12, 2026.

The main reason behind the Group's financial troubles is reported to be the costly

deals to secure exclusive broadcasting rights to major sporting events (e.g., the

Olympics and World Cup) – with sublicensing to the major broadcasters not having

worked out well.

Assuming this, we believe this is not an industry issue but more of a problem

specific to Joongang Group.

According to press (Business Post, June 16, 2026), Korean banks have credit

exposure to the JoongAng Group of ~W891bn. Hana Bank, the Group's main bank,