South Korea's conglomerates jacked up their bond sales this year as they capitalized on low borrowing costs to repay or refinance maturing debts, with shipbuilding, construction and steelmaking businesses raising more money than they paid off in debt, industry data showed on Friday.
According to the data compiled by Hana Daetoo Securities Co., 21 out of the country's top 30 conglomerates have raised a combined 28.33 trillion won (US$25.74 billion) so far this year by selling bonds, with their net proceeds from the debt sales reaching 2.04 trillion won.