[THE INVESTOR] Corporate bonds issued in South Korea jumped more than 20 percent in September from a month earlier, government data showed on Oct. 27.

Direct corporate financing here totaled 9.3 trillion won (US$8.10 billion) during the month, an 18.3 percent increase from 7.8 trillion won in August, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Equity issuance dropped 14 percent to 438 billion won, while corporate debts issued jumped 20.6 percent, or 1.51 trillion won, to reach 8.88 trillion won.

In particular, the issuance of ordinary corporate bonds soared 595.6 percent to 2 trillion won.

“Corporate bonds rated AA or higher accounted for 82.5 percent of total issuance,” the FSS said.

Financial debts issuance came to 5.1 trillion won, down 8.5 percent from a month earlier.

Outstanding corporate bonds totaled 412.3 trillion won as of end-September, 0.1 percent lower than August.

Meanwhile, the issuance of commercial papers rose 1.4 percent to 28 trillion won, but that of asset-backed short-term bonds fell 11.6 percent to 79.6 trillion won.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)