February Stock Issuance Down 12.6%... Corporate Bond Issuance Up 4.5%

Financial Supervisory Service Announces February Direct Financing Performance

Despite a strong initial public offering (IPO) market last month, stock issuance decreased by 12.6% due to a decline in capital raising through paid-in capital increases.

According to the 'Direct Financing Performance of Companies in February' announced by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 19th, the amount of stock issuance was 242.8 billion won, down 34.9 billion won (12.6%) from the previous month.

Although small and medium-sized IPOs centered on the KOSDAQ market decreased, APR opened the door to the first listing on the KOSPI market this year, resulting in an increase in IPOs by 7.7 billion won (4.2%) from the previous month to 191.9 billion won. On the other hand, paid-in capital increases remained sluggish at 50.9 billion won, following the previous month's 93.5 billion won.

Corporate bonds were issued amounting to 26.2373 trillion won, an increase of 1.1233 trillion won (4.5%) compared to the previous month. While the issuance of general corporate bonds decreased by 1.1175 trillion won (11.2%) to 8.859 trillion won, the issuance of financial bonds increased by 1.0988 trillion won (7.4%) to 15.8658 trillion won.

The Financial Supervisory Service explained, "Although market interest rates rose as U.S. inflation and employment indicators significantly exceeded expectations, the issuance of perpetual bonds by financial institutions and asset-backed securities (ABS) recovered."

Both commercial paper (CP) and short-term bonds saw a decrease in issuance compared to the previous month. CP issuance amounted to 34.5242 trillion won, down 7.2%, and short-term bonds decreased by 7.9% to 62.3625 trillion won.