– South Korea’s initial public offerings (IPOs) logged a double-digit fall last year owing to rising market uncertainty at home and abroad, financial watchdog data showed on Monday.
The number of companies, which went public in the main KOSPI and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ markets, stood at 70 in 2022, down 21.3 percent from 89 in the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The double-digit reduction came on the back of the growing market uncertainty, caused by rapid interest rate hikes in major economies to counter inflation as well as geopolitical risks in Europe, the FSS said.
The amount of money raised by the IPOs declined 20.7 percent to 15.6 trillion won (11.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, marking the first contraction in four years.
The 2022 IPOs were led by small-scale ones raising funds of less than 50 billion won (38 million dollars), the number of which reached 57 out of the total 70.
Thirteen companies canceled their attempts to go public last year, sharply up from 2 in the previous year.
