Korean Air to receive another $840mn, sell land – reports

South Korea will give KRW1 trillion won (USD840 million) of its KRW40 trillion (USD33.6 billion) long-term industry stabilisation fund to Korean Air (KE, Seoul Incheon) through the issue of government-guaranteed bonds, starting from the end of June, Yonhap News Agency has reported. The government has decided to prioritise the air and shipping industries, which have sustained direct hits from the coronavirus pandemic and which will continue to struggle into the second half of 2020, an unidentified government official said after a Korea Fair Trade Commission meeting on June 7. The flag carrier has already received KRW1.2 trillion (USD1 billion) in aid from two state-run financial institutions, the Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea, for its needs in the first half of 2020. But it has KRW3.32 trillion (USD2.8 billion) in debt maturing this year, which may rise to KRW4 trillion (USD3.3 billion) if investors of its hybrid bonds exercise their right to early payment, according to Yonhap. Meanwhile, Seoul’s metropolitan government has proposed a KRW467.1 billion (USD392 million) sum to Korean Air to buy the company’s 37,000-square-metre plot of land in Songhyeon-dong, central Seoul, to turn it into a “cultural park”, it announced on June 6.