By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
The market value of six foreign companies that went public on the local bourse this year reached 1.31 trillion won as of Dec. 24 on the back of this year's bullish market run, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said Sunday. It is much larger than those of non-Korean firms listed on the domestic market in 2007 and 2008.
The stock market operator said two Chinese companies listed shares here in 2007 and their combined market capitalization totaled 119 billion won as of last Thursday. In 2008, another two foreign firms went public and their combined market cap stood at a mere 74 billion won.
Besides the recent bullish market run, the KRX said the market value of foreign firms offering stocks here in 2009 increased sharply because they are far more superior to those who listed shares in 2007 and 2008 in corporate performance and growth potential. It reflects that Korea has emerged as an attractive capital market for promising Chinese and other Asian companies that seek to raise necessary funds, it said.
As of Dec. 24, share prices of all six listed firms this year were much higher than at the time of initial public offering (IPO). For instance, shares of China Food Packaging, which debuted on the tech-heavy Kosdaq in March, closed at 6,270 won last Thursday, four times higher than the IPO price of 1,500 won.
Also, shares of deep-sea fishery and fishery goods processor China Open Resources listed on the main bourse in May have increased by 2.6 times to 8,120 won from its IPO price of 3,100 won.
A KRX official said more foreign businesses listed their shares here than in other Asian bourses on the back of the local market's faster-than-expected recovery. ``In the early days, Chinese companies that had difficulty in listing shares in China were seeking to sell stocks here. But with the local market's resilient recovery and the easiness of the listing, more blue chip non-Korean countries went public this year,'' a KRX official said.
He then said domestic brokerage firms worked hard to attract talented startups in Asia to the local bourse, adding more China-based enterprises will list shares here in the coming years in line with Korean investors' growing interests in companies doing business in the world's fastest growing economy.
The KRX said up to 15 non-Korean companies will go public in 2010. Two Chinese firms have already been given the green light to list shares here, with one Chinese and U.S. firms each under review.