Corporate direct financing jumps nearly 40% in September

Corporate direct financing in South Korea surged 39.3 percent from a month earlier in September on a sharp spike in stock sales, data showed Monday.

Local companies raised a combined total of 27.57 trillion won ($20.37 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last month, up 7.78 trillion won from August, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets without borrowing from banks or other financial institutions.

Stock sales jumped more than 10-fold to over 6.49 trillion won in September from 566.9 billion won the previous month on large initial public offerings.

There were nine IPOs in September, including Doosan Robotics, which alone raised 4.2 trillion won, according to the FSS.

Rights offerings also jumped from 182.5 billion won in August to some 2.1 trillion won in September, it added.

Bond issues gained 9.6 percent, or 1.85 trillion won, to 21.07 trillion won over the cited period.

As of end-September, the value of outstanding corporate bonds stood at 631.6 trillion won, up 0.5 percent from a month earlier.

The data also showed that local businesses issued 31.9 trillion won worth of commercial papers last month, down 0.7 percent from August, and 67.16 trillion won worth of short-term bonds, up 6.5 percent on-month. (Yonhap)