South Korea’s IPO surges in 2017

South Korean companies raised $7.45 billion via initial public offerings (IPOS) last year, the eighth-highest figure across the globe, the bourse operator said on Monday.

The number represents 40 percent on-year growth and is the highest since 2010, when newcomers raised $9.55 billion, it added, Yonhap wrote.

A total of 80 companies, the 10th-highest number globally, made their market debut either on the country’s main KOSPI or secondary KOSDAQ stock markets in 2017, according to data from the Korea Exchange (KRX).

However, the number of firms making IPOS last year fell slightly from the previous year’s 83 entities, according to the KRX.

The global ranking is drawn up by comparing the members of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), which is comprised of 68 bourse operators from 52 countries.

“Over the past two years, the KRX achieved a whopping 97.4 percent growth in the capital raised by new corporate listings, and we are No. four among 20 major global bourse operators,” KRX official Shin Kwang-sun said.

The country’s IPO market was white-hot last year, with many IT and bio firms opting to go public. One of last year’s blue chips is Netmarble Games Corp., South Korea’s largest mobile games maker, which successfully debuted on the main bourse in May.

WFE members raised $187.1 billion in 2017, up 49.7 percent from the previous year. The New York Stock Exchange in the United States topped the list by raising $28.24 billion, followed by China’s Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) at $21.15 billion and the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) at $16.45 billion, the data showed.