Increase in Investment in KOSDAQ Companies Despite COVID-19... Total Investment Amount 7.5 Trillion Won

Increase of 380 Billion KRW Compared to Last Year... Significant Rise in New Facility Investments and Tangible Asset Acquisitions

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] Despite the COVID-19 situation, KOSDAQ companies have increased their investments. This is interpreted as a preparation for the post-COVID-19 era by proactively establishing and expanding facilities and factories.

The KOSDAQ Association announced on the 21st that it analyzed 427 disclosures (including duplicates, excluding foreign corporations) from 354 KOSDAQ-listed companies last year, including investments in other companies, new facility investments, acquisition of tangible assets, and technology introduction disclosures. This included cases where companies voluntarily disclosed investments even if the investment amount did not exceed 10% of their equity capital (or total assets), thus not requiring mandatory disclosure.

According to the survey, the total investment amount of KOSDAQ-listed companies last year was 7.5309 trillion KRW, an increase of 5.4% (383.1 billion KRW) compared to the previous year. This shows active investment despite COVID-19.

In particular, new facility investments amounted to 1.7232 trillion KRW, a 23.9% (332.8 billion KRW) increase from the previous year. The investment amount per company was 30.2 billion KRW, up 21.8% (5.4 billion KRW) from the previous year. By investment category, the order was 'facility investments such as equipment (63.7%), factory establishment and expansion (24.2%), and research institute establishment and expansion (9.8%).'

Acquisition of tangible assets also increased significantly. It was recorded at 1.3747 trillion KRW, a 65.8% (545.7 billion KRW) increase from the previous year. The acquisition amount per company was 21.5 billion KRW, up 32.1% (5.2 billion KRW) from 16.3 billion KRW the previous year. Most of the tangible asset acquisitions were land and buildings (87.6%).

Investment in other companies amounted to 4.433 trillion KRW, a 10.1% (495.4 billion KRW) decrease from the previous year. The investment amount per company was 19 billion KRW, down 12.0% (2.6 billion KRW) from 21.6 billion KRW the previous year. The purposes of investing in other companies were business diversification (29.4%), business expansion (17.2%), and management efficiency improvement (16.8%), in that order.

Meanwhile, technology introduction did not occur, remaining the same as the previous year. Jang Kyungho, chairman of the KOSDAQ Association, explained, "It appears that many companies are proactively establishing and expanding facilities and factories, acquiring tangible assets to expand their business or enter new businesses, and aiming to seize growth opportunities in the post-COVID era."

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