GM Daewoo repays portion of KDB loans

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Yonhap) -- GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., the South Korean unit
of U.S. automaker General Motors Co., repaid a portion of loans it received from
its creditor Korea Development Bank (KDB) on Friday, a company official said.
GM Daewoo paid back 125.8 billion won (US$108.6 million) in maturing loans to
KDB, the official said.
Since February, cash-strapped GM Daewoo has been in talks with KDB to receive
about one trillion won in new loans after exhausting a $2 billion credit line.
With little progress made at the talks, GM Daewoo said it would seek to raise
491.2 billion won in a rights offering this month to secure working capital. On
Thursday, GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson reiterated the U.S. carmaker
would join the rights offering.
KDB, however, is demanding that GM increase the size of the rights offering,
arguing the U.S. parent should raise more money for GM Daewoo.
KDB, which is also the second-biggest shareholder of GM Daewoo, has warned that
unless its demands are met it will withdraw all loans from GM Daewoo and will not
participate in the rights offering.
Henderson, visiting a GM Daewoo plant in Bupyeong, near Seoul, told reporters
that talks with KDB officials a day earlier were "constructive," without
elaborating.
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