Stock issues by Korean Inc. soar 783% in Mar on mega IPO and rights offering

[Photo by Han Joo-hyung]

Korean stock issuance surged by a whopping 783 percent in March from the previous month on a near 1 trillion won ($897 million) initial public offering (IPO) by SK Bioscience and 3.3 trillion won rights offering by Korean Air Lines.

According to data released by the Financial Supervisory Service on Monday, local companies raised 6.05 trillion won ($5.42 billion) through equity offering in March, up 783.4 percent or 5.36 trillion won from the previous month.

IPOs soared 660 percent on month to 1.23 trillion won largely owing to 994.5 trillion won worth stock listing by vaccine maker SK Bioscience Co. There were 11 IPOs, three more than the previous month.

Five companies made secondary offerings of 4.81 trillion won, soaring 821.7 percent from a month earlier. The bulk came from flag carrier Korea Air Lines Co. that issued 3.32 trillion won worth in new shares to finance its takeover of Asiana Airlines. Chemicals manufacturer Hanwha Solutions Corp. sold 1.35 trillion won worth.

Bond issuance in March totaled 18.37 trillion won, falling 4.7 percent from a month ago.

[Source: Financial Supervisory Service]

Financial institutions sold 13.06 trillion won worth debs, up 10.6 percent on month. Asset-backed securities climbed 144.2 percent to 1.67 trillion won.

Debt issues by non-financial companies fell 46.4 percent to 3.64 trillion won last month, although mid-to long-term debt issues continued for refinancing and operation purposes.

Outstanding balance of corporate bonds stood at 590.9 trillion won at the end of March, up 0.8 percent from the previous month.

Commercial paper issues shrank 8.8 percent to 27.03 trillion won from a month-ago period. Short-term debt issues expanded 1.1 percent on month to 88.41 trillion won.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]