Among the nation’s 10 conglomerates, Hyundai Heavy Industries marked the highest credit rating, according to recent research.

CEO Score, a CEO and company appraising website, said on Wednesday that Hyundai Heavy Industries issued a total of 1.2 trillion won ($1.06 billion) worth of corporate bonds between July last year and Aug. 24 this year, at an average annual interest rate of 3.51 percent.

The interest rate was the lowest among the ten conglomerates researched, which signifies that the company has the highest credit rating among them, said CEO Score.

Lotte Group was at Hyundai’s heels as four of its companies ― Lotte shopping, Lotte Confectionary, Lotte Chilsung Beverage and Honam Petrochemical Corporation ― issued 1.89 trillion won worth of bonds during the same period at an average annual interest rate of 3.53 percent.

The list was followed by Samsung Group which six of its subsidiaries ― Hotel Shilla, Samsung C&T Corporation, Samsung Fine Chemicals, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Techwin and Cheil Industries ― issued 9.14 trillion won worth of bonds at the interest of 4.04 percent.

Then came POSCO (4.07 percent), SK (4.13 percent), Hyundai Motors (4.15 percent), Hanwha Group (4.16 percent) and LG Group (4.2 percent).

The total amount of the corporate bonds issued by the ten companies was worth about 25.88 trillion won.

Samsung Group issued the most bonds and acquired over 9.14 trillion won. The total was about 266 percent larger than that of the runner-up SK, which secured 3.43 trillion won through the issues. LG Group followed with 2.78 trillion won.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)