The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KTFC) (Chairman Kim Jong-ho, hereinafter referred to as “KIBO”) announced on Wednesday, the 23rd, that it visited Kotran Co., Ltd. (CEO Ji Byeong-hun) in Sancheong-gun, Gyeongnam, a special disaster area designated as such, to assess the damage and review support measures in order to support the rapid recovery and management stability of small and medium-sized enterprises that suffered damage from heavy rain.
Established in June 2021, Kotran Co., Ltd. is a specialized technology start-up company specializing in processing seafood, processing squid, scallops, etc. and exporting them to Korea, the US, and Japan. The company has achieved significant sales growth over the past three years, but has been hit by the recent flooding. In particular, some of the factories were flooded and a power outage occurred, forcing the raw seafood being processed to be hurriedly transferred to a cold storage in the Busan area, raising concerns about disruptions in overseas export schedules.
Kibo plans to provide prompt support to small and medium-sized enterprises, including Cotran, that have suffered damage from heavy rain through the ‘Disaster Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Special Guarantee’, thereby helping them overcome the damage as soon as possible and stabilize their management.
'Disaster SME Special Guarantee' is a preferential support program designed to alleviate temporary financial difficulties of SMEs that have suffered damage from natural disasters and to support the normalization of management. The support target is ▲ companies that have been confirmed as disaster SMEs by the government or local governments ▲ companies that have received a decision to provide disaster recovery-related funds ▲ companies that have been confirmed to have suffered damage through on-site investigations by Kibo.
Through this special guarantee, Kibo will provide guarantees of up to KRW 500 million for operating funds in special disaster areas and facility funds within the required fund range, and apply a fixed guarantee rate of 0.1%. In general disaster areas, a fixed guarantee rate of 0.5% will be applied up to a maximum of KRW 300 million for combined operating funds and facility funds. In addition, Kibo plans to minimize the financial burden on affected companies by increasing the guarantee rate, easing the screening criteria, and extending the maturity of existing guarantees.
In addition, we have decided to form an emergency response team with the warranty officer as the head of the response team and to do our utmost to support companies affected by heavy rain. In particular, we plan to operate a 'heavy rain damage reporting center' at sales offices near the affected areas and operate a field response team centered around the regional headquarters manager to focus our capabilities on providing rapid support to affected companies.
Executive Director Park Joo-sun said, “I would like to express my deepest condolences to the small and medium-sized enterprises and local residents who suffered great damage from the sudden heavy rain,” and added, “KIBO will do its best to provide customized financial support, including special guarantees, so that technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises can quickly overcome management crises caused by sudden disasters and continue their businesses stably.”
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