KB News Desk
Profitability at Homeplus remains out of reach until 2029, its revised rehabilitation plan showed Thursday, a reversal from the quick return to the black it had promised in earlier planning.
Homeplus now projects an operating loss of 10.3 billion won ($7.4 million) for the year ending February 2028, on sales of 3.38 trillion won. It expects a sharp reversal the following year, with sales jumping 22 percent to 4.12 trillion won and operating profit turning to 124.2 billion won.
As recently as June, Homeplus had forecast a profit for that same 2028 fiscal year. Its profit target for 2029 has barely moved, leaving the retailer needing to flip its operating results by about 134.5 billion won in a single year.
The bigger question remains how the company plans to cover its financing along the way.
Under the plan, Homeplus expects to sell 23 company-owned stores to raise 1.42 trillion won by early 2028. A separate crunch comes in February 2030, when 812.1 billion won in mandated public-interest claims comes due, requiring another 591.8 billion won in borrowing against remaining real estate. A final reckoning follows in 2037, when Homeplus intends to refinance 914.3 billion won to cover what is left.
Homeplus disputed the notion that this borrowing is simply about plugging holes.
The company said it will sell 19 owned properties by February 2028 to clear trust-backed debt in full, freeing up roughly 38 remaining stores, worth a combined 2.8 trillion won, to serve as collateral for the 2030 and 2037 loans.
By February 2030, all 67 surviving stores will be back to normal operation, generating an estimated 4.3 trillion won in sales and 162.8 billion won in operating profit, rising to 218.2 billion won in profit by 2037, the retailer outlined.
Whether that pans out, though, depends on a sales turnaround the company has yet to demonstrate.
“What matters is proving they can sustain profit under normal operating conditions,” one industry official said, adding that Homeplus still needs to show concrete grounds for the projected profit jump in 2029.
Homeplus resumed operations after securing 200 billion won in emergency financing. The retailer posted 43.7 billion won in sales over five days after reopening on Aug. 13, with daily average sales nearly tripling to 8.7 billion won from 3 billion won.
