S. Korean corporate bond sale rises 24 pct in July

SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's corporate bond issuance climbed 23.9
percent on-year in July as companies rushed to tap the local debt market to boost
their liquidity level, the nation's securities depository said Tuesday.
A total of 65 local companies sold a combined 4.4 trillion won (US$3.6 billion)
worth of debt last month, compared with 3.6 trillion won a year earlier, the
Korea Securities Depository said in a report.
The firms paid back 2.9 trillion won in bonds last month, bringing their net debt
sales to 1.5 trillion won, the depository said.
The bulk of the bond sales was aimed at securing working capital as a number of
companies remained financially restrained due to global financial turmoil.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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