South Korea’s corporate bond sale grew in double digits in the first half of this year due to soaring demand for refinancing from industrial companies, financial watchdog data showed Monday.
The issuance of corporate bonds came to 121.8 trillion won (94.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 26.7 percent compared to the same period of last year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Bonds, sold by industrial companies, surged 50.7 percent to 32.5 trillion won (25.2 billion dollars) in the first half as demand increased for bonds with a maturity of one year or longer to refinance debts.
Financial companies-issued bonds spiked 20.6 percent to 81.73 trillion won (63.4 billion dollars), while the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) gained 11.9 percent to 7.57 trillion won (5.9 billion dollars).
Equity financing, including the initial public offering (IPO) and rights issuance, reached 2.74 trillion won (2.1 billion dollars) in the first half, down 85.1 percent from a year earlier.
Source: Xinhua Finance Agency