Creditor row adds fuel to Ssangyong Engineering Construction's stalled debt workout

An intensifying row between creditors of debt-mired Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. has turned into a major setback in the builder's long-pending turnaround efforts, casting a dim outlook on the local construction sector down the road, bank and industry sources said Wednesday, South Korea's 13th-largest builder, by construction capacity, has been placed under debt rescheduling since June by its creditor banks after suffering a cash shortage stemming from a property market slowdown. But the debt workout process hit a snag last week when a Seoul court accepted the request from one of Ssangyong E&C's creditors to put a temporary seizure on its accounts worth about 78 billion won (US$74.2 million).