Korea Investment & Securities tops Q3 Korean equity capital market league

Korea Investment & Securities Co. topped South Korea’s equity capital market (ECM) league in the third quarter for its hand in blockbuster IPOs of SK Biopharmaceuticals and Kakao Games.

In the third quarter to September this year, Korea Investment & Securities led underwriting of shares worth 1.01 trillion won ($863 million) to rank No. 1 on the ECM league table, marking a big jump from seventh place in the first half. The securities firm was the co-leading underwriter for SK Biopharmaceuticals that made initial public offering on the Kospi, and one of the bookrunners for Kakao Games’s public debut on the Kosdaq.

The ECM volume in the third quarter totaled at 4.5 trillion won, more than tripled from the same quarter a year earlier. The total volume had shriveled 39 percent in the first half compared to previous year due to COVID-19 that chilled investment but it quickly rebounded to put the figure for Jan-Sept period at 5.8 trillion won, outstripping 3.2 trillion won recorded over the full year in 2019.

The second place of the third-quarter’s ECM ranking was claimed by NH Investment & Securities with 890.7 billion won, followed by Mirae Asset Daewoo with 501.6 billion won. NH was co-lead underwriter for SK Biopharmaceuticals IPO as well as recapitalization deals of Korean Air Lines and CJ CGV.

In the debt capital market (DCM), KB Securities defended its top spot by a mile by arranging debt issues worth 18.9 trillion won through September. It carried out 209 issuances, including facilitating debt financing for companies, and claimed 24.2 percent of the total market.

NH Investment & Securities was a distant second with a gap of 4 trillion won in the third quarter, up from 2.6 trillion won in the first half. The third on the DCM ranking list was Korea Investment & Securities, the same as previous quarters, followed by SK Securities.

By Kang Woo-seok, Park Jae-young, and Cho Jeehyun

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