About 1,900 individual investors in South Korea are struggling to get their money back after Lotte Insurance Co., a local non-life insurance company, failed to repay its subordinated bonds early as promised.
Data obtained by Representative Min Byeong-deok of the Democratic Party of Korea from the Financial Supervisory Service shows that individual investors owned more than 80% of the 90 billion won ($65.43 million) bond issue by May 8, 2025, the scheduled early repayment date.
Additional information from Lotte Insurance, provided to Representative Lee In-young, reveals that Korea Investment & Securities underwrote 60 billion won, and Meritz Securities underwrote 30 billion won when the bonds were issued.
By May 12, 1,253 individuals had purchased 49 billion won worth of bonds through Korea Investment & Securities, with an average investment of about 39 million won each. Meritz Securities sold 2.9 billion won and 1.6 billion won worth of bonds to Daishin Securities and SK Securities, respectively.
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