The issuance amount of equity-linked securities (ELS) in the first quarter of this year was recorded at 9.9526 trillion KRW, a 23% increase compared to the same period last year.
On the 18th, the Korea Securities Depository announced that the outstanding issuance balance of ELS, including equity-linked bonds (ELB), was 53.1049 trillion KRW in the first quarter of this year, down 11.1% from the same period last year. ELS are derivative-linked securities linked to specific stocks or indices, known as high-risk products due to the increased risk of principal loss depending on market fluctuations.
By issuance type, public offering ELS accounted for 83.7% of the total issuance amount, while private placements accounted for 16.3%. By underlying asset type, ELS based on domestic and foreign indices accounted for the largest share at 53.6% (5.332 trillion KRW) of the total issuance amount. Stock-type ELS based on domestic and foreign stocks followed at 42.1% (4.1916 trillion KRW).
Among ELS based on domestic and foreign indices, products including the U.S. S&P 500 index and EURO STOXX 50 were issued at 3.7121 trillion KRW and 3.3549 trillion KRW, respectively. Compared to the fourth quarter of last year, the growth rates were 14.5% for S&P 500-based products and 15.1% for EURO STOXX 50-based products.
During the same period, ELS including the China Hong Kong H index and Japan Nikkei 225 index increased by 26% and 111%, respectively, with issuance amounts of 294.8 billion KRW and 1.3624 trillion KRW.
On the other hand, ELS reflecting the Korean KOSPI 200 index were issued at 4.0797 trillion KRW, down 36.3% from the previous quarter.
The top five securities firms?Korea Investment & Securities (15.8% issuance share), Hana Securities (13.3%), Samsung Securities (11.2%), Shinhan Investment Corp. (7.6%), and Mirae Asset Securities (7.1%)?issued a total of 5.4721 trillion KRW in the first quarter of this year, accounting for 55% of the total.
The redemption amount of ELS in the first quarter of this year was 8.4428 trillion KRW, a 45.8% decrease compared to the same period last year. By redemption type, maturity redemption and early redemption accounted for 47.4% and 40.2% of the total redemption amount, respectively. The remaining 12.4% was accounted for by mid-term redemptions.
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