SEOUL-- The value of corporate mergers and acquisitions in South Korea surged 66 percent on-year last year amid major companies' active investments in new industry fields, the antitrust regulator said Wednesday.

Corporate deals were valued at 349 trillion won (US$288.5 billion) in 2021, compared with 138.4 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

The number of corporate mergers and takeovers also rose 28.7 percent on-year to 1,113 last year, the regulator said.

It is the first time that the figure has surpassed 1,000 since the country introduced the corporate merger review system in 1981.

Under the country's fair trade law, merger deals sought by companies whose total assets or sales top 300 billion won must win the antitrust regulator's approval when they seek to buy firms whose assets or sales exceed 30 billion won.

The number of M&As pursued by domestic firms rose 30.3 percent on-year to 954 cases last year, with their combined value coming to 64.5 trillion won, the FTC said.

The number of local firms' takeovers of foreign business entities remained unchanged at 21, but their combined value soared due to mega deals in the chip industry, including SK hynix's takeover of Intel Corp.'s NAND memory chip business.

The number of mergers by large companies reached a 10-year high of 302 last year, up 41.8 percent from the previous year, with their value growing nearly threefold to 33.3 trillion won, the FTC said.

Affiliates of SK, the country's third-largest conglomerate, accounted for the largest share with 25 merger cases, followed by Mirae Asset Financial Group affiliates with 21 and Kakao with 17 cases, according to the data.

The service sector saw 767 corporate mergers last year, many of which were led by financials and other investment entities, the regulator said, adding that mergers among new energy companies and those in new industries took up a major part of the manufacturing sector.

Source: Yonhap News Agency