国际英语新闻：S.Korea's direct corporate financing jumps 30% in Feb.

SEOUL, March 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korean companies' direct financing jumped 30 percent in February from a month earlier, the financial regulator said Monday.

Corporate financing through public offers amounted to 14.05 trillion won (12.6 billion U.S. dollars) in February, up 29.6 percent or 3.21 trillion won from 10.84 trillion won the previous month, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a monthly report.

Local firms raised 2.27 trillion won through selling news shares in rights offering and in initial public offerings (IPO) last month, up more than six-fold from 315.5 billion won in January, according to the FSS.

February's sharp increase came as Hana Financial Group sold 1.3 trillion won of new shares to finance its takeover of Korea Exchange Bank from the U.S. private equity firm Lone Star. Hyundai- wia also raised 260 billion won through IPO, boosting the amount of direct financing by local firms last month.

The volume of bond issuance increased 11.9 percent on-month to 11.78 trillion won in February as local companies aggressively sold bonds ahead of possible interest rate rises, the FSS noted. ( 1 U.S. dollar = 1,115 won)