Direct Financing by S. Korean Companies Rises 14.1% in October 

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) Direct financing by South Korean companies rose 14.1% on-month in October as borrowing conditions remained favorable on the central bank's low-rate policy amid a flagging economy, the financial regulator said Tuesday.

Local companies raised 13.6 trillion won (US12.3 billion) last month by issuing stocks and bonds, compared with 11.8 trillion won a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Corporate bond issuances reached 13.4 trillion won in October, up 13.3% from the previous month as financial firms opted to secure funds on the back of low borrowing costs, the FSS said.

The Bank of Korea cut the benchmark 7-day repo rate by a quarter point to 2.75% in October following the same margin cut the previous month.
The debt sales in asset-backed securities (ABS) fell 15.5% to 315.7 billion won over the cited period, and those sold in bank debentures surged 42.8% to 2.94 trillion won, it said.

Local companies' direct financing through selling shares more than doubled to 146.4 billion won in October, but the overall amount remained low with only one initial public offering (IPO) and seven rights offerings logged for the month.

"Due to the jittery market, the number of IPOs for this year hit the lowest last month since the 2008 financial crisis," said a FSS official.

In the January-October period, local firms raised 1.43 trillion won through IPOs and rights offerings, a 81.1% plunge compared with a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the accumulated amount of corporate direct financing came in at 112.7 trillion won as of end-October, down 2.6% from the previous year, according to the regulator.