Although the size of initial public offerings (IPOs) last year fell 11% from 2024, large corporations' paid-in capital increases rose by nearly 6 trillion won, leading to a slight year-over-year increase in Korea's direct financing by corporations. Corporate bonds also decreased by about 2 trillion won.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 4th, last year's public offering issuance by corporations totaled 289.9576 trillion won, up 2.8938 trillion won (1.0%) from a year earlier.
Equity public offering issuance totaled 170 cases and 13.7065 trillion won. The number of cases decreased by two from last year (172 cases), but the size increased by 4.8860 trillion won (55.4%), from 8.8205 trillion won in 2024.
Of this, IPOs came to 3.6763 trillion won, down 440.8 billion won (10.7%) from the prior year. IPOs on the KOSDAQ market plunged 449.8 billion won (15.6%), while the Korea Exchange's main board saw a modest increase of 9 billion won (0.7%).
In contrast, paid-in capital increases rose from 56 cases in 2024 to 72 cases last year, and the size surged from 4.7034 trillion won to 10.0302 trillion won, up 5.3268 trillion won (113.3%). The increase by large corporations accounted for most of the gain at 5.7943 trillion won (219.7%), while paid-in capital increases by small and mid-sized companies fell 467.5 billion won (22.6%).
Last year's corporate bond issuance was 276.2510 trillion won (4,184 cases), down 1.9923 trillion won (0.7%) from a year earlier. Over the same period, straight corporate bonds increased 3.2349 trillion won (6.5%) to 53.1260 trillion won.
Issuance for refinancing purposes totaled 42.2627 trillion won, accounting for most of the funds by use—facilities, operations, and refinancing. At about 79.6%, it was the largest annual share. Operating funds and facility funds followed at 16.4% and 4.0%, respectively.
By credit rating, high-grade issues of AA or above accounted for 37.23 trillion won, or 70.7%, up 4.3 percentage points from the prior year (66.4%). BBB and below and A decreased to 29.3% year over year. By maturity, medium-term bonds made up most at 50.4640 trillion won (95.0%), while long-term and short-term bonds accounted for 3.4% and 1.6%, respectively.
Financial bond issuance was 203.6803 trillion won, down 8.4633 trillion won (4.0%) from a year earlier. Bank bonds and other financial bonds also fell by 9.3656 trillion won (12.2%) and 2.9837 trillion won (2.4%), respectively, while financial holding company bonds rose 3.8860 trillion won (31.3%) over the same period.
As of last year, the total outstanding balance of corporate bonds was 758.790 trillion won, up 64.1548 trillion won (9.3%) from the prior year (692.7242 trillion won). Straight corporate bonds continued a net issuance trend from the previous year.
Commercial paper (CP) issuance came to 503.1909 trillion won, up 67.9958 trillion won (15.6%) from a year earlier, and short-term bond issuance rose 1,160.1333 trillion won, up 291.8034 trillion won (33.6%).