IPOs on Standby
There are 177 companies, including 39 major corporations, slated to go public in Korea next year.
According to KTB Asset Management, the 177 include 100 to be listed on the Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ), 16 non-Korean companies, 22 biotech firms, and five to be transferred from Korea New Exchange (KONEX) to the KOSDAQ.
The number this year was 79, eight of them on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the others on the KOSDAQ.
If all of the 39 large corporations are listed on the KOSPI as scheduled, the number of new entries in the bourse reaches a new high. The previous high is 25 in 2010. “It seems that the rush on the part of conglomerates is because of today’s hot-button corporate governance reform issue and increasing financing demands as of late,” the asset management firm explained.