Korean firms' share offerings dip 22 pct in H1

SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- Share sales by South Korean companies declined 22 percent in the first half of 2009 from a year earlier as the Seoul bourse lost ground due to global financial turmoil, the country's securities deposit agency said Sunday.

Local companies' share offerings totaled 6.68 trillion won (US$5.2 billion) in
the January-June period, compared with 8.54 trillion won from the previous year,
according to the Korea Securities Depository Corp.
The agency said a fall in share sales was partly due to a drop in the issue
prices of new shares and a weaker overall market. South Korea's benchmark KOSPI
stock index registered an average of 1,257.3 points in the first half, compared
with 1,764.2 points a year earlier.
But the number of new share offerings rose 3 percent on-year to 365 in the first
half, and the number of companies that floated stocks totaled 257, up 7 percent
from the previous year, the agency said.
More companies sold bonds or shares to raise capital this year as they faced
difficulty in borrowing from banks in the wake of the global financial meltdown.
Shinhan Financial Group, South Korea's No. 2 financial services company, raised
the largest biggest amount through share offerings with 1.3 trillion won,
followed by chip giant Hynix Semiconductor Inc. with 1.05 trillion won and the
Industrial Bank of Korea with 800 billion won, the agency said.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr