Korea’s primary and secondary capital markets have had a scorching 12 months.
After SK Biopharmaceuticals revived sentiment with its IPO in June last year, a succession of large ECM deals hit the market, with Korea Investment & Securities working on the majority of them.
Seoul has several securities houses, but it is typically KIS and NH Investment & Securities that have a front-row seat on transactions and which go head-to-head for mandates. In the year to the end of June 2021, KIS led the way. It worked on 11 deals worth $9.9 billion, versus NH’s seven deals worth $6.3 billion, according to Dealogic data.
During the awards period, KIS was involved in some of the biggest transactions, such as SK IE Technology’s $2 billion listing in April, SK Biosciences’s $1.3 billion float in early 2020 and the $822 million IPO by Big Hit Entertainment in September 2020. In each case, the shares soared when they started trading, reflecting strong demand.
In addition to the IPOs, which dominated Korea’s ECM for the past year, KIS worked on a few block transactions. For instance, it was on a $171 million block trade of Doosan Fuel Cell shares and a $2.9