By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

KT-MBK consortium has been named the preferred bidder for the purchase of Kumho Rent-A-Car. The consortium consists of local telephony giant KT and a private equity firm, MBK Partners.

Kumho Asiana Group and its main creditor, Korea Development Bank, said Monday it will finalize the deal with the consortium to sell the car rental unit by January next year.

Kumho's logistics unit, Korea Express, has owned the company since purchasing it last December.

Details of the contract have not been revealed.

A total of five bidders, including the KT-MBK consortium, vied for the nation's largest car rental firm, which has a 20.2-percent market share. Founded in 1990, Kumho Rent-A-Car has 160 sales branches across the country with some 50,000 vehicles in its fleet.

"Even though Kumho Rent-A-Car is one of the most profitable units of the group, we made this decision to strengthen our will for restructuring," Kumho Asiana said in a statement. "The entire effort will pick up speed with the deal."

The bidders offered similar packages for the takeover, but KT-MBK had the edge with its detailed post-acquisition management plan, Kumho added.

Financially-troubled Kumho Asiana has been pressured to sell its assets in an effort to ease its liquidity problems caused by its purchase of Daewoo Engineering & Construction (DEC) in 2006.

In addition to selling its rental car unit, Kumho inked a memorandum of understanding with Consus Asset Management, a local asset manager, on the sale of its insurance unit, Kumho Life insurance, for 400 billion won ($344.1 million) in October. DEC is also currently for sale on the market.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr