Korea’s March Public Offerings Rise 3.8% as Short-Term and Structured Finance Lead

 
Public offerings expanded across equities, corporate bonds and short-term funding in March, but the mix tilted further toward short-term and structured financing rather than long-term funding.
 
According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s report released on the 29th on companies’ direct financing results for March 2026, total public issuance came to 19.9832 trillion won, up 3.8% from the previous month.

Public issuance of equities and corporate bonds combined rose by 733.5 billion won from a month earlier. Equity issuance totaled 440.2 billion won, up 28.9%. Initial public offerings raised 210.4 billion won, down 27.6%, while paid-in capital increases surged 353.3% to 229.8 billion won, driving the overall gain. The number of IPOs increased, but the amount raised fell, while rights offerings emerged as the main funding channel.
 
Corporate bond issuance totaled 19.5430 trillion won, up 3.4%, though components moved in different directions. Straight corporate bonds fell 6.5% to 4.7810 trillion won. Financial bonds and asset-backed securities increased, lifting the overall total. ABS issuance jumped 208.7% from the previous month to 1.3196 trillion won.
 
The March market was marked by weaker long-term issuance and stronger structured and short-term funding. For straight corporate bonds, refinancing accounted for 85.6% of issuance, indicating companies largely rolled over existing debt rather than funding new investment. Issuance also concentrated in higher-rated paper, with 98.5% rated A or above.
 
In the ABS market, structured financing expanded rapidly. P-CBO issuance surged 3,166.3%, and issuance backed by financial companies’ underlying assets rose 1,269.5%, pointing to growing use of credit-enhanced structures rather than plain-vanilla bond sales.
 
Short-term markets grew even faster. Combined issuance of commercial paper and short-term bonds reached 200.4738 trillion won, up 25.6%. CP issuance rose 23.5% and short-term bonds increased 26.3%, underscoring a shift in funding strategy toward shorter maturities.
 
Kim Eun-gi, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said April is a heavy redemption period, with 10.7 trillion won of straight corporate bonds maturing, excluding the first quarter. “Even so, corporate bond issuance yields are forming at levels higher than in February, when net redemptions were large, and as the U.S.-Iran situation drags on, volatility in government bond yields is also increasing, creating an atmosphere in which companies are delaying corporate bond issuance,” he said.
 
He added that, unlike past crisis periods, CP yields are staying low, keeping short-term funding conditions favorable. “As the rate advantage of CP and CD over corporate bond yields has grown, companies are likely to make up funding shortfalls from net corporate bond redemptions with CP or bank loans,” Kim said.