Korea Opens Third Stock Market for Smaller Companies 중소기업 전용 주식시장 '코넥스' 오늘 개장

A new stock market opened this morning in Korea. The Korea New Exchange, or KONEX, was created with the aim of helping the nation's small- to mid-sized businesses gain the financing they need to succeed. Yoo Li-an reports. The Korea New Exchange, or KONEX,... Korea's third stock market,... is now up and running. The KONEX was created with the aim of helping start-ups and small- to mid-sized businesses with high growth potential.. finance themselves,... as they are too small to be listed on either the KOSPI, the main bourse, or the tech-heavy KOSDAQ. The total number of companies listed on the KONEX when it opened for the first time this Monday was twenty-one,... comprising companies in the bio-technology, semi-conductor, software and auto parts industries. The average amount of assets of these companies is about forty-two percent of that on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ. To be listed on the KONEX, a company needs to have either 500 million won, or roughly 440-thousand U.S. dollars, in equity capital,.. report at least 1-billion won in sales, or earn a net profit of 300-million won, annually. Venture capitalists and institutional investors can trade in the KONEX,...but individual investors must keep at least 263-thousand dollars in cash or securities in their accounts to make sure that they can handle the risk involved. The bourse operator is hoping to attract fifty companies with a combined market capitalization of roughly 876-million U.S. dollars by the year's end. The launch of the KONEX comes in tandem with the Park Geun-hye administration's goal of shoring up small- and medium-sized enterprises as the drivers of economic growth. Yoo Li-an, Arirang News.