April Stock Issuance Drops 96%... Base Effect of Large IPOs Including SK바사 in Previous Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji-hwan Park] Last month, domestic companies' stock issuance sharply declined. This is due to the base effect from the initial public offering (IPO) of SK Bioscience, considered a major deal in the first half of the previous month, and large-scale paid-in capital increases by KOSPI large-cap companies such as Korean Air.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 25th, stock issuance in April totaled 7 cases worth 250.4 billion KRW, a decrease of 9 cases and 5.7972 trillion KRW (95.9%) compared to the previous month. IPOs amounted to 101.3 billion KRW (4 cases), down 91.8% from 11 cases the previous month. In the previous month, SK Bioscience raised 994.5 billion KRW for its KOSPI listing, which expanded the overall IPO scale. However, in April, all 4 cases?Isak Engineering, Haesung TPC, Kukon, and Eugene Corporate Acquisition No.6?were related to KOSDAQ listings, and there were no large-scale IPOs.

Paid-in capital increases amounted to 149.1 billion KRW (3 cases), down 96.9% from 5 cases the previous month. Issuances occurred in one KOSPI company (Korea Refractories), one KOSDAQ company (Dawon Sys), and one unlisted corporation (AAI Healthcare). This contrasts with the previous month, when large-scale fundraising by KOSPI large-cap companies such as Korean Air (3.316 trillion KRW) and Hanwha Solutions (1.3461 trillion KRW) expanded the capital increase scale.

The scale of corporate bond issuance in April increased by 34.2% from the previous month to 24.6609 trillion KRW. General corporate bonds amounted to 8.868 trillion KRW (74 cases), increasing 143.5% from the previous month. Issuance focused on medium- to long-term bonds for debt repayment, with a decrease in operating funds and an increase in refinancing funds in April.

Financial bond issuance rose 9.2% from the previous month to 14.2615 trillion KRW (201 cases), while asset-backed securities (ABS) issuance decreased 8.3% to 1.5314 trillion KRW (83 cases). At the end of April, the total corporate bond balance was 598.7073 trillion KRW, up 7.7309 trillion KRW (1.3%) from the previous month (590.9764 trillion KRW).

In April, commercial paper (CP) and short-term bond issuance totaled 131.301 trillion KRW, an increase of 13.7% from the previous month. CP issuance rose 17.4% to 31.74 trillion KRW, and short-term bonds increased 12.6% to 99.561 trillion KRW.

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