Firms’ debt, equity rises on corporate bond growth

Korean companies’ equity and debt sales rose 3.3 percent on-year in 2019, due mainly to a rise in corporate bond issuance, data showed Tuesday.

Local companies raised 175.49 trillion won ($149 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last year, compared with 169.8 trillion won in the previous year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The surge is attributable to the 5.8 percent on-year growth in the value of corporate bonds issued, including bank bonds and asset-backed securities, to 170.1 trillion won, the agency said.

But stock sales tumbled 40.2 percent on-year to 5.31 trillion won, due to a sharp decline in rights offerings by companies.

A total of 102 firms went public in 2019, and their aggregate amount of funds raised via initial public offerings rose 6.6 percent to 2.46 trillion won, according to the financial agency.

The outstanding value of bonds issued by South Korean businesses came to 523.93 trillion won as of the end of 2019, up 8 percent from a year earlier.
Yonhap