South Korean listed companies' rights issues nearly doubled in 2021 from a year earlier, data showed Monday.

Companies listed on the country's main and other stock markets raised a combined 50.6 trillion won ($42.4 billion) through 1,346 rights offerings last year, up 97.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Securities Depository.

The number of last year's rights offerings was up 19.3 percent from the previous year.

Rights issues by companies listed on the main Kospi market came to 30.6 trillion won, with those by firms traded on the secondary Kosdaq bourse reaching 9.7 trillion won.

Leading air carrier Korean Air Lines Co. carried out the largest rights issue at some 3.3 trillion won, followed by online gaming company Krafton Inc. with 2.8 trillion won and online lender Kakao Bank with 2.6 trillion won.

Meanwhile, 252 listed firms offered 1.86 billion shares freely to existing shareholders, up 91.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data. (Yonhap)