Hong Kong, March 28

Riding a Seoul stocks revival, some of South Korea’s biggest family firms are set to clean house this year with multi-billion dollar initial public offerings (IPOs) that will fire the country to a record year for new listings.

Family-run conglomerates like Samsung, Doosan and Lotte are listing assets to streamline structures, smooth paths toward management succession or ease debt burdens. Added to other deals, IPOs planned by these three will take proceeds this year to at least $10 billion, eclipsing 2010’s high of $8.5 billion.

Coming on back of a near-10 per cent rally in Seoul’s benchmark share index since mid-February, the sales will test international investor appetite for minority holdings in firms dominated by some of best-known names in South Korean business. But the scale of the IPOs and relative stability of the domestic market make them a magnet for Korean investors at least.

IPOs expected this year include Hotel Lotte Co, potentially country’s biggest ever at $5 billion, drugmaker Samsung Biologics and construction equipment maker Doosan Bobcat Inc, the latter two seen worth $2 billion and $1 billion.