[FlowTracer] Companies Issuing 100 Million KRW CBs — Small-Cap Mezzanines Surpass Half of the Market

Gencurix disclosed the issuance of convertible bonds (CBs) on DART, and the amount raised was 100 million KRW. AriBio repeated this process eleven times during the single year of 2025. The scale may differ, but the method is the same—convene the board of directors, agree on terms with a specific investor, and disclose it, then it is done. Small CBs and bonds with warrants (BWs) of under 10 billion KRW issued in this manner over the past two years amounted to 415 cases, surpassing half of the total issuance of mezzanines—bonds with options convertible into stocks—for the first time.

415 Out of 887 CB·BW Cases — Half Are Under 10 Billion KRW

Among the 887 mezzanine issuances disclosed on DART from March 2024 to March 17, 2026, 415 cases were under 10 billion KRW. By the number of cases, it represents 46.8%, but by amount, it accounts for only 1.7291 trillion KRW—11.4% of the total 15.2106 trillion KRW. This gap—accounting for half of the cases but only one-tenth of the amount—epitomizes the nature of the small-cap mezzanine market.

The trend is even clearer. The share of small-cap deals has increased year by year, from 41.7% in 2024 to 50.0% in 2025, and 54.2% in the first quarter of 2026, behind which lies the trace of the same companies repeatedly issuing them in the same manner.

The Same Company Issues CBs 11 Times

AriBio issued 11 CBs over eight months from March to November 2025, averaging 2.36 billion KRW per case, equivalent to nearly one issuance every month. Instead of raising tens of billions at once, the company drew funds by separately issuing CBs worth a few billion each, reaching a total of 25.9 billion KRW.

The five companies ranking 2nd to 6th also issued 6 cases each, all of which share the commonality of being small-cap KOSDAQ stocks. Once a company opens a path for CB issuance, it repeatedly utilizes the same path whenever needed, and the side providing the money acts similarly.

Savings Banks Have Become the Big Players in the CB Market

Companies can issue CBs repeatedly because there are parties that underwrite them repeatedly. If affiliates are aggregated, including SangSangIn Savings Bank (15 cases, 77.3 billion KRW), SangSangIn Securities (2 cases, 9.0 billion KRW), SangSangIn (2 cases, 10.5 billion KRW), and SangSangIn Plus Savings Bank (1 case, 3.0 billion KRW), the SangSangIn Group underwrote 20 cases worth 99.8 billion KRW of small CBs. In this way, savings banks have risen as major suppliers in the mezzanine market, providing funds to companies via CBs instead of traditional loans.

Four new technology investment funds affiliated with Synergy IB also executed 11 cases worth 50.5 billion KRW, showing a similar pattern. Although they carry policy-oriented names such as "Win-Win Innovation" and "New Technology," they repeatedly inject funds into specific small-cap stocks. Combined, these two groups supplied 31 cases worth 150.3 billion KRW—accounting for 8.7% of the entire small-cap mezzanine market.

All 415 Cases Are Private Placements — 0 Public Offerings

All 415 cases of small-cap mezzanines under 10 billion KRW are private placements (third-party allotments), with not a single public offering. Since the issuer and the underwriter negotiate the terms one-on-one, there is no room for price discovery through the market. Although they use a capital market instrument called a CB, it is practically a private transaction between two parties.

There are also 16 cases of ultra-small CBs under 1 billion KRW. Gencurix at 100 million KRW, Sound Vaccine at 200~300 million KRW, and AriBio at 306 million KRW—the money secured through the process of convening the board of directors and posting a public disclosure to the Financial Supervisory Service is only 100 to 300 million KRW. There are zero public offerings, and transactions are repeated with identical structures. Relationships, not prices, are driving this market.

This article was written based on Flow Tracer, created by News Epoch to track capital flows in the Korean VC/PE market.