In March, corporations' fundraising appeared to shift from mid- to long-term bonds such as corporate bonds to stocks and short-term funds.
According to "Direct financing by corporations in March 2026," which the Financial Supervisory Service released on the 28th, issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term bonds totaled 200.4738 trillion won, up 25.6% from the previous month.
By institutional sector, CP issuance was 46.7698 trillion won, up 23.5%, and short-term bonds were 153.7040 trillion won, up 26.3%. For CP, issuance backed by accounts receivable, corporate bonds, and time deposits rose 50.4%, while for short-term bonds, issuance backed by project financing (PF) loan claims jumped 38.1%, leading the increase.
Corporate bonds came to 19.5430 trillion won, up 634.8 billion won (3.4%) from a year earlier, but ordinary corporate bonds were 4.7810 trillion won, down 332.7 billion won (6.5%) from the previous month.
Of ordinary bond issuance, 85.6% was for refinancing, and the share for operating funds was 14.4%. Of the issues, 98.5% were rated A or higher, focusing on high-grade paper, and maturities of two to five years accounted for 97.5%.
Financial bonds totaled 13.4424 trillion won, up only 0.6%, but asset-backed securities (ABS) surged to 1.3196 trillion won, up 208.7% from the previous month. In particular, P-CBOs with credit enhancement by the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) rose to 671.6 billion won, up 3,166.3%, and issuance by financial companies also jumped to 933.1 billion won, up 1,269.5%.
As of the end of March, the total balance of corporate bonds was 747.3152 trillion won, down 0.2% from the previous month. Ordinary corporate bonds saw a net redemption of 449.0 billion won, maintaining the net redemption trend from the previous month.
Fundraising through stock issuance expanded. Public offerings in March totaled 440.2 billion won, up 28.9% from the previous month. Initial public offerings (IPOs) numbered nine at 210.4 billion won, with the count rising but the amount falling, while paid-in capital increases were seven at 229.8 billion won, with issuance up 353.3% from the previous month.