KOSDAQ Companies Still Struggling with Inadequate Securities Registration Statements

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] It has been revealed that the number of securities registration statements requiring corrections due to omission or unclear disclosure of important risk factors of companies is increasing. In particular, a significant portion of the corrected securities registration statements were concentrated among KOSDAQ-listed companies.

A securities registration statement is a document disclosed through the financial supervisory authorities when a company issues securities such as stocks or bonds worth more than 1 billion KRW, containing information on the scale of fundraising and investment risks.

According to the "2019 Securities Registration Statement Analysis and Investor Precautions" released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 19th, the total number of securities registration statements submitted by listed companies last year was 496, a decrease of 8 cases (1.6%) compared to 504 cases the previous year. Among these, 32 cases, or 6.4% of the total, received correction requests. This is an increase of 7 cases (28%) from around 25 cases in 2017 and 2018.

KOSDAQ-listed companies submitted 73 securities registration statements, of which 30 cases (41.1%) received correction requests. Among KOSPI-listed companies, only 1 case (0.5%) out of 201 total statements received a correction request. KONEX companies had zero cases, and there was 1 correction request for unlisted companies.

The Financial Supervisory Service cited major correction request cases such as changes in major shareholders affecting management stability and strengthening the disclosure of the purpose and use of public offering funds received from investors, urging investors to exercise caution.

A Financial Supervisory Service official stated, "To protect investors, we plan to focus on reviewing the completeness of risk disclosures for vulnerable companies and the appropriateness of the basis for merger price calculations," adding, "We will continuously guide investors on matters to be cautious about through inspection and analysis of disclosure information."

Meanwhile, the number of stock issuance cases last year was 170, a decrease of 29 cases compared to the previous year, and the amount decreased by 3.4 trillion KRW (33%) due to the absence of large-scale initial public offerings (IPOs) and paid-in capital increases. Bond issuance increased due to the continued low-interest market environment. It recorded 294 cases, an increase of 22 cases from the previous year, and the amount increased by 11.2 trillion KRW to 58.6 trillion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.