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Koran game developer Krafton Inc.'s IPO (Courtesy of Yonhap News)
Korean companies raised 231.5 trillion won ($193.2 billion) of capital through stock and bond issuance in the domestic market in 2021, according to Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on Jan. 25. The highest-ever financing soared by 19% from 2020. South Korean companies also issued commercial papers and short-term debentures with a combined worth of 1.7 quadrillion won last year. Stock issuance through initial public offerings and rights offerings reached 29.1 trillion won in 2021, up a whopping 166.5% from 10.9 trillion won in 2020. Total 110 IPOs made new stock issuance last year, raising a record-high 14.5 trillion won. This is over threefold of 3.8 trillion won equities issued by 87 IPOs in 2020. The 2021 IPOs also broke the highest record of new stock issuance in 2017, which boasted 5.9 trillion won.Korean big techs such as Krafton Inc., KakaoBank Corp., Kakao Pay Corp. were listed last year raising 2.8 trillion won, 2.6 trillion won and 1.5 trillion won, respectively. Shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. made a public market debut with 1.1 trillion won raised. On the secondary bourse Kosdaq market, total of 96 IPOs issued stocks worth 3.1 trillion won last year.Total 89 rights offerings issued new stocks worth 14.6 trillion won in 2021, nearly doubling 7.9 trillion won of stock issuance through 70 rights offerings in 2020. Among the rights offerings last year are flag carrier Korean Air Line Co., which raised 3.3 trillion. Conglomerate affiliates Hanwha Solutions Corp., Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Hanwha Systems Co. raised each 1.3 trillion won through their rights offerings. Hanwha Systems Co. issued 1.2 trillion worth of new stocks as well. MORE SHORT-TERM BONDS DUE TO RATE HIKES Corporate bonds issued on the public markets last year reached 202.4 trillion won, up 10.3% from 183.6 trillion won in 2020. Straight bonds issuance in 2021 amounted to 46.7 trillion won, increasing 11.1% from 42.1 trillion won in 2020. LG Chem Ltd., SK Inc. and SK Hynix Inc. issued each 1.2 trillion won bonds. Korea South-East Power Co. and E-mart respectively issued bonds worth more than 1 trillion won. Issuance of corporate bonds with AA and higher ratings in 2021 reduced by 935 billion won, or 9.2% point, compared with 2020. On the other hand, A-rated bonds jumped by 4.1 trillion won or 7% point. Bonds with BBB or lower ratings also increased by 1.2 trillion won or 2.2% point last year.Short-term corporate bond issuance expanded last year amid interest rate hikes and low-rated bonds increases. Long-term bonds with more than five-year maturity reduced by 8.2 trillion won, or 21% point. Mid-term bonds, with a maturity of more than one year and up to five years, surged by 12.4 trillion won or 20.2% point.By Hyun-il Leehiuneal@hankyung.comJihyun Kim edited this article.
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