In the first half of this year, corporations significantly increased fundraising through the short-term money market, such as commercial paper (CP) and short-term bonds, rather than stocks or corporate bonds. As interest rates and the stock market swung widely, more corporations appeared to use shorter-maturity funds over long-term financing.
According to the "First-half 2026 corporations' direct financing performance" released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 4th, first-half issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term bonds totaled 1,272.8483 trillion won, up 515.1069 trillion won (68%) from a year earlier.
CP issuance came to 282.7547 trillion won, up 45.0774 trillion won (19%), and short-term bonds totaled 990.0936 trillion won, up 470.0295 trillion won (90.4%). Issuance increased across the board for general CP and short-term bonds issued by financial companies and general corporations, as well as PF asset-backed commercial paper (PF-ABCP) backed by project financing (PF) loan asset claims.
By contrast, fundraising through stocks and corporate bonds decreased. First-half public offerings of stocks and corporate bonds totaled 126.5754 trillion won, down 23.357 trillion won (15.6%) from a year earlier.
Specifically, stock issuance totaled 2.9786 trillion won, down 125.51 billion won (29.6%). Both initial public offerings (IPO) and paid-in capital increases fell by about 30%. IPOs decreased in both the number of deals and size, and paid-in capital increases declined in overall performance due to smaller issuance sizes.
Corporate bonds fell by 2.21018 trillion won (15.2%) to raise 123.5968 trillion won. General corporate bonds declined sharply by more than 30%. The drop of more than 30% in general corporate bond issuance had a large impact. By issuance purpose, refinancing funds accounted for 72.9% of general corporate bonds, while operating funds were 23.6% and facility funds were 3.6%.
By credit rating, issuance of high-grade bonds rated AA or higher was 19.605 trillion won, accounting for 76.9% of the total. A-rated bonds were 21.0%, and BBB-rated and below were 2.2%. Asset-backed securities (ABS) also fell by more than 30% due to reduced issuance of mid-sized corporations' P-CBO.
At the end of the first half, the balance of corporate bonds was 757.239 trillion won, up 37.0246 trillion won from the end of the first half last year (720.2144 trillion won). However, as new issuance fell short of maturing amounts, the corporate bond market shifted to net redemption.