Last Year’s Stock Issuance Amounted to 24.6 Trillion Won, Down 11% YoY

by Kim Jinyeong

Published 04 Feb.2025 11:17(KST)

In 2024, approximately 18.457 billion shares were issued (electronically registered) through the Korea Securities Depository, marking a 3.2% increase from the previous year. However, the total amount of stock issuance decreased by 10.9% to 24.64 trillion KRW. During the same period, the number of issuing companies also declined by 5.7% to 1,274 companies.

On the 4th, the Korea Securities Depository disclosed the status of electronic stock registration for 2024, revealing these details.

By securities market, KOSDAQ stocks accounted for about 10.18 billion shares, representing 55.2% of the total issuance volume last year. Unlisted company stocks followed with 4.46 billion shares (24.2%), KOSPI (the Korea Composite Stock Price Index) stocks with 3.68 billion shares (19.9%), and KONEX stocks with approximately 120 million shares (0.7%). However, in terms of issuance amount, KOSPI was the largest at about 11.1491 trillion KRW, followed by KOSDAQ at 9.7575 trillion KRW, unlisted companies at 3.6623 trillion KRW, and KONEX at 66.1 billion KRW.

Provided by Korea Securities Depository.

By reason for issuance, "paid-in capital increase" was the most common, with about 6.59 billion shares (35.7% of total issuance). A paid-in capital increase refers to a company issuing new shares and selling them to shareholders for money to increase its capital.

The issuance volumes for "par value change" and "new participation" were 2.67 billion shares (14.5%) and 1.48 billion shares (8.0%), respectively. Notably, par value change increased by 107.5% compared to the previous year, recording the highest growth rate. Par value change is the act of changing the stock price (par value) to increase or decrease the total number of shares without altering the capital. New participation refers to the issuance of new shares as a new measure.

Among the detailed types of paid-in capital increase, "third-party allotment" was the largest, with about 4.63 billion shares. The "shareholder allotment" and "public offering" types accounted for 1.43 billion shares and 520 million shares, respectively. Third-party allotment is the allocation of new share subscription rights to a third party who is not an existing shareholder. Shareholder allotment gives existing shareholders the opportunity to hold shares, while public offering means selling shares to the unspecified public.