▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and delivers six news items tailored to each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Chuseok investing: As interest grows in how to put holiday cash to work, semiconductors and dividends have emerged side by side as the keywords picked by Korea's five largest asset managers. Structural demand growth driven by the spread of artificial intelligence and stable cash flow in volatile markets were cited as the respective attractions of each theme.
■ Short-term funding risk: Companies and secondary financial firms including brokerages, credit card issuers and capital firms have shifted further toward short-term funding this year. With central banks in major economies raising policy rates one after another, some warn that investors should watch the refinancing risk on short-term paper maturing before year-end.
■ KOSDAQ IPO revival: Newly listed shares that cut their offering prices have drawn strong demand on their debut days one after another, reversing the slump in the initial public offering market in the space of a month. Meanwhile, the Korea Exchange approved preliminary reviews for 11 companies this month alone, excluding special purpose acquisition companies, fueling expectations that KOSDAQ listings will increase in the fourth quarter.
[Top News for Financial Product Investors]
1. Investing Chuseok Cash: "Chip and Dividend ETFs Worth a Long-Term Bet"
- Key summary: Semiconductors and dividends emerged as the core keywords among the Chuseok cash investment products recommended to Seoul Economic Daily by Korea's five largest asset managers — Samsung, Mirae Asset, KB, Korea Investment Trust and Shinhan. Samsung Asset Management proposed RISE Global AI NAND Memory Semiconductor, which invests in the global NAND memory value chain, and SOL Semiconductor Front-End Process, which invests in domestic front-end process companies. Mirae Asset Global Investments and Shinhan Asset Management picked HANARO U.S. AI Memory Semiconductor TOP4+ and KODEX U.S. CPU Semiconductor TOP10, respectively. According to Koscom's ETF CHECK, SOL Semiconductor Front-End Process and KODEX U.S. CPU Semiconductor TOP10 rose 20.63% and 23.93% over the past month. Three of the five managers also recommended ACE U.S. Dividend Quality, which invests in blue-chip U.S. dividend payers, while K-beauty, AI infrastructure and short-term dollar bond products were offered as alternatives.
- Key summary: Preferred shares of Samsung Electronics (005935.KS) posted nearly double the gain of the common stock (005930.KS) in September, showing notable strength. According to the Korea Exchange, the preferred shares rose 15.34% between the 1st and the 23rd of this month, outpacing the common stock's 9.00% gain by 6.34 percentage points. Samsung Electronics plans to return a total of 90 trillion to 110 trillion won to shareholders this year, of which about 30 trillion won will go toward third-quarter cash dividends. Because preferred shares trade at a lower price than the common stock, the same dividend per share translates into a higher yield, and the added possibility that they will be used for share cancellation has drawn buying interest.
3. 268 Trillion Won in Short-Term Debt Matures by Year-End as Refinancing Risk Grows
- Key summary: According to the Korea Securities Depository, short-term financial securities with a remaining maturity of less than 89 days that come due before year-end totaled 268.34 trillion won as of the 22nd, accounting for 70.6% of the total outstanding balance. Commercial paper, short-term bonds and asset-backed commercial paper maturing this month alone amounted to 181 trillion won, up 29.1% from September last year. The expansion of short-term funding by credit card issuers was particularly pronounced, with the share of card bonds issued with maturities of two years or less jumping from 3.6% at the end of June last year to 52.4% at the end of June this year. Meanwhile, with the European Central Bank followed by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan raising policy rates in succession, caution over refinancing conditions has grown.
[Reference News for Financial Product Investors]
4. Yield of 8.75%: 27 Trillion Won Pours Into SoftBank Junk Bonds
- Key summary: More than $20 billion, or about 27 trillion won, flooded into the book-building for junk bonds that SoftBank Group is issuing to raise funds for its investment in OpenAI. According to Bloomberg, the initially planned size was $11 billion, or 15 trillion won, with the 3.5-year tranche offered at 8.75% to 8.875%, the 5.5-year tranche at 9.375% to 9.5% and the 7.5-year tranche at 9.75% to 9.875% — all the highest levels among SoftBank's dollar bonds. The proceeds will go toward a $65 billion investment in OpenAI and to mergers and acquisitions. Both S&P Global and Fitch rate the notes BB+, but the 8.75% floor on the 3.5-year tranche is close to the 8.5% average yield on B- rated bonds in the U.S. market, underscoring how quickly funding costs have risen this year for SoftBank and other companies.
5. DeepSeek and Moonshot AI Also Summoned to U.N. Security Council
- Key summary: World leaders are gathering on the occasion of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the future of artificial intelligence and international security. According to Reuters, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue are all turning out for the U.N. Security Council session held in New York on the 23rd. China's DeepSeek and Moonshot AI were also invited as speakers, though it remains unclear whether the founders of the two companies will attend in person. Meanwhile, BYD, Xiaomi and CATL are seen as likely to join the U.S.-China summit scheduled for the 24th.
6. Retail Investors Return With Cash in Hand as KOSDAQ IPO Market Bustles Again
- Key summary: Newly listed shares that debuted on the KOSDAQ this month have all drawn strong demand, warming the initial public offering market. Wise Planet Company (0010S0.KQ), which listed on the 23rd, closed at 46,300 won, up 285.83% from its offering price of 12,000 won, after drawing a subscription rate of 1,478 to 1 and about 3.55 trillion won in deposits in the retail offering. Cutting offering prices below the bottom of the indicative range in light of the market correction, as Skylabs (386380.KQ) and Neosapience (0161M0.KQ) did, is seen as having increased room for share price gains. The number of companies that withdrew from the review process in the second half also fell sharply to two — Mobius and Telepix — from seven in the same period last year.
▶Read the full article: "I Thought It Wouldn't Be Much": Borrowing 300 Million Won Adds This Much in Monthly Interest Alone
▶Read the full article: Kakao Hits Brakes on U.S. Listing of Kakao Mobility, Citing "Limits on Minority Shareholder Interests"
▶Read the full article: 268 Trillion Won in Short-Term Debt Matures by Year-End as Refinancing Risk Grows
