Chairman Jung Ji-won of the Korea Exchange.(KRX) (Photos: KRX)

The Korea Exchange (KRX) is considering making ceremonies for newly listed companies more interesting and meaningful. The stock market authority thought the current celebration to mark the initial day of trading has been too rigid, mechanical and needs to be loosened up.

One of the changes under consideration is a corner for the CEOs of listed companies to meet reporters and answer questions regarding their companies. That will give them an effective forum to communicate the vision of their company on the day of the listing of their stocks
Officials of the stock exchange said they want to add “zing” to the initial listing day as it is one of the most important milestones for any company – like a person’s wedding day.

The officials added that stock exchanges overseas make the celebration for the first day of trading like a birthday celebration. They want to bring that approach Korea, too.

The officials now want to schedule such parties to take place from 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. before the opening hour of the exchange, and hold a session with reporters at 9 a.m. when the exchange opens. At the press session, the newly listed firms can talk about their plans for the future and other key factors to the reporters to let the public know about the companies, the exchange officials said.

They said they would like to have the new format for the celebrative event for IPOs ready from May 1, although details still have to be worked out depending on the progress of the remodeling of the Korea Exchange building that is now going on. They are sure that the companies that completed the initial public offering (IPO) would be able to hold the new event from May 1, which would be an important chance for them to let the investors to know about them and buy their shares.

They will have these factors in mind in making the event more elaborate and effective. The new event will be limited to the Kospi market for now, as too many companies would hold such events if allowed to do so on the Kosdaq market.

So far this year, three companies began trading their shares on the Kospi market, including Woori Financial Group, W Games, and Dream Tech. Only Woori Financial Group and Dream Tech have held initial parties to kick off their trading. W Games did not hold an event as the company moved to the securities market from Kosdaq market, where seven new companies listed their shares for trading so far this year.

In 1956, the Korean stock market opened with the start of Korea Stock Exchange. In January 2005, through integration of Korea Stock Exchange and two other domestic markets, the Korea Exchange (KRX) was created. There are four markets in the KRX; Main Board (KOSPI Market), KOSDAQ (Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation), KONEX (Korea new exchange) and the derivatives market.

The KRX is one of the most liquid stock exchanges. Numerous companies from various industries completed their IPOs successfully on KRX. ∙ Since 2007, the KRX has been actively promoting foreign companies’ inbound IPOs to grow as an international stock exchange, be popular among foreign companies and attract international investors. (Since IPO of 3Nod - a Chinese company - in 2007, total of 23 foreign companies have listed on the KRX as of June 30, 2015.)

In order to further enhance its credibility on the international platform and be leading global capital market, KRX has also signed MOUs with other global stock exchanges for mutual cooperation in areas such as information sharing, IT consulting, market links, development of new products, and any other mutually beneficial project.

A view of the Korea Exchange and the attached buildings in Yeouido, Seoul.