This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 3:37 p.m. on Apr. 07, 2026.
The initial public offering (IPO) market has slumped. As of the first quarter, the number of newly listed corporations fell to nine, less than half from a year earlier. With overlapping listing regulations and Middle East–driven geopolitical risks piling on, corporations have halted their listing bids. So-called blockbuster IPOs valued in the trillion-won range have disappeared.
According to investment banks (IB) and the financial investment industry on the 7th, the number of newly listed corporations in the first quarter (excluding special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, and relistings) stood at nine in total, with one on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and eight on the KOSDAQ market. That was down 60.9% from the same period last year, when 23 companies, including three on the KOSPI, newly listed on the domestic stock market.
During the same period, the amount raised through offerings also fell about 58%, from 1.843 trillion won to 772.1 billion won. In the first quarter of last year, LG CNS and Seoul Guarantee Insurance Company debuted on the KOSPI with trillion-won valuations, whereas in the first quarter of this year, KOSPI saw only one new listing, Kbank. New listings on the KOSDAQ market also dropped 60%, from 20 to eight.
Uncertainty stemming from overlapping listing regulations is cited as the reason for the slowdown in new listings. With the Financial Services Commission setting a policy to in principle prohibit overlapping listings and the Korea Exchange (KRX) planning to announce guidelines on overlapping listings, corporations are either withdrawing their listing plans or waiting for the announcement.
Preliminary listing reviews for CMDL, DTS, and Duksan Navcours have stalled under the stance of banning overlapping listings of subsidiaries of listed companies. In particular, DTS, a subsidiary of DASAN Networks, filed for a preliminary listing review with the KOSDAQ Market Division of the Korea Exchange (KRX) in Sep. last year, but has not received a result for more than six months.
On top of that, stock market volatility triggered by the Iran war has further depressed the IPO market. If existing stock prices fall due to the war's fallout, newly listed corporations must adjust their offering prices. As a result, preliminary listing corporations are recalibrating their listing timelines.
It is also hard to be optimistic about a boom in the IPO market in the second quarter. Filings for preliminary listing reviews, the pipeline for IPOs, have become scarce. Eleven corporations (excluding SPACs) have filed for preliminary listing reviews this year to go public. All are small and mid-cap issues with modest offering sizes, aiming for the KOSDAQ market.
An official in the securities industry said, "Investor demand for IPOs is alive, but there is nowhere to invest," adding, "In particular, due to the impact of the overlapping listing ban, it has become difficult for affiliates of large corporations to push for listings, so KOSPI blockbusters have vanished, and small and mid-caps with technological strengths are barely filling the gap."