Record number of firms make IPO debut, but valued lower than 2022

A night view of Seoul's financial district in Yeouido / Korea Times file

A record-high 83 companies have been newly listed on the Korean stock market so far this year, up 15.6 percent from a year earlier, data showed, Tuesday.

The combined valuation of the corresponding initial public offerings of the companies (IPOs), however, diminished by nearly 80 percent from the previous year.

According to the Korea Exchange, the nation’s sole bourse operator, a total of seven companies made their debuts on the benchmark KOSPI and another 76 on the secondary bourse Kosdaq this year.

The number of newly listed companies increased from five on the KOSPI and 66 on the Kosdaq.

In addition, two more companies are expected to go public — the country’s biggest biodiesel export company DS Dansuk on the KOSPI and BlueMTech, a medical equipment business, on the Kosdaq.

“That will make a total of 85 newly listed firms for 2023,” an industry source said.

However, the total valuation of the 83 businesses’ IPOs was down 79.8 percent from a year earlier to 3.19 trillion won. Moreover, the total value was lower than the 3.2 trillion marked in 2019.

An industry source attributed the decline in valuations to the size of the newly listed companies, noting many of them are small businesses that are less popular among investors.

The source called for improvements in the IPO market for prospective firms “to be priced at the value they deserve.”