Caffe Bene finally graduates from court receivership

Caffe Bene, a homegrown coffee franchise, said Thursday it has graduated from a court-led debt-rescheduling program after it submitted a 10-year repayment plan to the court.

The company filed for court receivership in January as aggressive expansion of its outlets and stiff competition resulted in snowballing debt worth nearly 60 billion won ($53 million), a company spokesman said over the phone.

In the debt settlement plan approved in May, the coffee chain company converted 30 percent of its overall debt into shares and vowed to pay the remaining 70 percent of the debt in the next 10 years, he said.

“The court reached the conclusion that the company’s going concern value [41.5 billion won] is bigger than its liquidation value [16.5 billion won] based on the debt repayment plan,” the spokesman said.

Caffe Bene currently operates 10 regular chain stores and 410 franchise stores including overseas ones in the United States, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, he said.

Yonhap