S.Korea's corporate bond issuance falls on policy rate hike

SEOUL, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's corporate bond issuance fell last month on the first interest rate hike in almost six and a half years, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.

Corporate debt financing reached 10.2 trillion won (9.5 billion U.S. dollars) in November, down 4.2 percent from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

It came amid rising expectations for the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s interest rate hike. The central bank raised its policy rate by a quarter percentage point in late November to 1.5 percent.

Bonds issued by industrial companies shed 3.4 percent over the month to 1.81 trillion won (1.68 billion U.S. dollars) in November, with those sold by financial companies falling 7.6 percent to 6.52 trillion won (6.06 billion U.S. dollars).

Corporate equity financing, including initial public offering (IPO) and rights offering, amounted to 1.53 trillion won (1.42 billion U.S. dollars) in November, up 1,212.2 percent from a month ago.

During the January-November period, the corporate direct financing, which includes both debt and equity financings, amounted to 145.46 trillion won (135.22 billion U.S. dollars), up 28.8 percent compared with the same period of last year. Enditem