Hyundai's Creditors Drag Feet

Cash-strapped Hyundai Engineering & Construction's planned debt-equity swap is being held up by slow-reporting creditors, a creditor bank official said Sunday.

As a preliminary procedure for the swap, Korea Exchange Bank, the main creditor, asked 35 members of the committee of creditor banks and 160 other financial institutions which the construction firm owes to report the amounts due them, the creditors said. Seven of the 35 members, including Korea First Bank and Hanvit Bank, and 120 of the 160 financial institutions have yet to report.

"The process is too slow," the official said. "By Hyundai's extraordinary shareholders' meeting, scheduled for May 18, we need to decide on the debt proportions for each creditor to determine the shares each will receive. We don't have enough time."