S.Korea's corporate financing nearly triples in January

SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate direct financing nearly tripled in January due to a massive initial public offering (IPO) and a sharp growth in corporate bond issuance, financial watchdog data showed Thursday.

Corporate direct financing through the sale of stocks and bonds came to 27.53 trillion won (22.9 billion U.S. dollars) in January, up 172.5 percent from the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

File photo: AP

Equity financing, including IPO and rights issuance, surged 615 percent over the month to 10.55 trillion won (8.8 billion dollars) in January.

LG Energy Solution, the country's biggest automotive battery maker, went public last month on the main bourse by selling stocks worth 10.2 trillion won (8.5 billion dollars).

The issuance of corporate bonds soared 96.8 percent to 16.98 trillion won (14.1 billion dollars) on expectations for higher borrowing costs later this year.

The country's central bank froze its benchmark interest rate at 1.25 percent earlier in the day, but market watchers expected the central bank to raise the key rate twice or three times by the end of this year to curb higher inflationary pressure.