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Homeplus vouchers a minus for those headed to partnered theaters, restaurants

Published: 05 Mar. 2025, 18:00

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

A shopper enters a Homeplus store in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, on March. 4. [NEWS1]

Homeplus gift certificates became unredeemable at major partner businesses such as movie theaters, restaurants and amusement parks after the supermarket chain “pre-emptively” started the corporate rehabilitation process on Tuesday to resolve liquidity worries.

CJ Foodville — which operates the bakery Tous Les Jours and restaurants VIPS and The Place — stopped accepting Homeplus vouchers as payment from Tuesday, according to the hypermarket chain.

Homeplus enters corporate rehabilitation to head off effects of credit rating drop

CJ CGV, Shilla Duty Free, I-Park Mall, Everland, Enter6, the Ambassador Hotel and Dr Robbin now also refuse the chain’s gift certificates as of Wednesday. That amounts to eight of the 20 companies the chain is partnered with.

Outback Steakhouse’s operator, Dining Brands Group, put out a statement Wednesday saying the restaurant chain has not stopped accepting the vouchers but will continue to monitor the situation before coming to a decision.

The retailers have not provided a time frame for when they will resume taking the gift certificates as payment, a Homeplus spokesperson told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

The measure was presumably taken by the partnered entities over fear of delayed payback for the vouchers. Gift cards can still be paid back by the issuing company even if they are undergoing court-led corporate restructuring, but only after the court’s approval, which delays the process.

As the corporate rehabilitation process only affects bond payments, the company “absolutely” has no problems covering the vouchers used for general transactions, the Homeplus spokesperson said. The hypermarket chain said on Tuesday that the decision to file for corporate rehabilitation was made pre-emptively to assuage liquidity concerns, particularly its short-term cash flow, after its credit rating was downgraded on Feb. 28.

The fallout from last year’s TMON and WeMakePrice liquidity meltdown — in which the two platforms failed to refund vouchers that they had sold at heavily discounted prices and struggled to make payments to sellers — has likely spooked the companies despite Homeplus’s assurance of its credibility, the spokesperson presumed.

“So far, no one has requested refunds for Homeplus vouchers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the retail giant is closing down nine branches. A total of 25 have been shuttered since MBK Partners acquired the chain in 2015, eleven of which have either reopened or are planned to.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]