By Yoon Ja-young
The Korea Exchange (KRX) has started encouraging major listed firms to make disclosures in English, naming 175 companies subject to the guidelines.
This aims at helping foreign investors gain access to information, thus attracting more global players to the Seoul bourse.
Those having to make disclosures in English are mostly firms that have large market capitalization and are a focus of interest with foreign investors.
They include Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors and other major companies heavily invested by foreign investors.
The KRX is ordering firms to disclose key information that is especially useful for foreign investors, such as earnings results and forecasts as well as investment decisions in English.
The firms that are active in English disclosure will get benefits such as promotion for investors.
This comes amid increasing investment by foreigners in the Seoul bourse.
The number of foreign investors registered with the KRX stood at 41,927 as of March, jumping from 31,060 in 2010. Foreigners currently hold 412 trillion won in equities in Korea, which is 32.5 percent of the total market cap.
Due to the lack of information in English, however, the bourse had trouble attracting more potential global investors.
Foreign investors have complained that they are marginalized from key information that could have a decisive influence on their investments. For instance, when Hyundai Motors' labor union started a strike after failing to reach an agreement with the management last year, some Korean investors immediately sold shares, on expectation that the carmaker would sustain losses due to the strike.
However, as only Korean language disclosures were made regarding this, foreign investors missed the chance.
Due to this imbalance in access to key information for Koreans and non-Koreans, foreign investors are complaining that the Korean bourse is far from globalization.
There were only 168 cases of English disclosures in 2015, which is little different from the 165 in 2011.
The Korea Exchange (KRX) has started encouraging major listed firms to make disclosures in English, naming 175 companies subject to the guidelines.
This aims at helping foreign investors gain access to information, thus attracting more global players to the Seoul bourse.
Those having to make disclosures in English are mostly firms that have large market capitalization and are a focus of interest with foreign investors.
They include Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors and other major companies heavily invested by foreign investors.
The KRX is ordering firms to disclose key information that is especially useful for foreign investors, such as earnings results and forecasts as well as investment decisions in English.
The firms that are active in English disclosure will get benefits such as promotion for investors.
This comes amid increasing investment by foreigners in the Seoul bourse.
The number of foreign investors registered with the KRX stood at 41,927 as of March, jumping from 31,060 in 2010. Foreigners currently hold 412 trillion won in equities in Korea, which is 32.5 percent of the total market cap.
Due to the lack of information in English, however, the bourse had trouble attracting more potential global investors.
Foreign investors have complained that they are marginalized from key information that could have a decisive influence on their investments. For instance, when Hyundai Motors' labor union started a strike after failing to reach an agreement with the management last year, some Korean investors immediately sold shares, on expectation that the carmaker would sustain losses due to the strike.
However, as only Korean language disclosures were made regarding this, foreign investors missed the chance.
Due to this imbalance in access to key information for Koreans and non-Koreans, foreign investors are complaining that the Korean bourse is far from globalization.
There were only 168 cases of English disclosures in 2015, which is little different from the 165 in 2011.
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