Corporate coffers in Korea are filling up as nervous local companies cut back on investment spending.

The corporate sector has increasingly been tightening its purse strings as the economy has failed to manifest a clear rebound. Instead, companies are opting to keep their coffers filled with cash to prepare for future uncertainties, industry sources said on Monday.

“We want to be stocked in cash and liquid assets in case the global economy fails to pick up,” said one executive, declining to be identified.

Samsung Electronics, despite the stellar performance it showed this year with record-high sales, has reportedly stocked up on 18.82 trillion won ($17.37 billion) of cash as of the end of September this year. That compares to the 14.69 trillion won tallied as of the end of last year, and also double the 9.7 trillion won of the end of 2010, according to the company’s quarterly report.

At the same time, the company has been reducing its size by cutting away affiliates, and refraining from fresh investment. Samsung Electronics’ investment in the third quarter shrank to 4.53 trillion won from the 7.75 trillion won in the first quarter this year.

Samsung’s third-quarter investment was the lowest in 10 quarters.

Meanwhile, LG Electronics has invested 1.12 trillion won in facilities investment up to the third quarter of this year, but industry watchers said they have yet to see whether the company can hit its annual investment target of 1.6 trillion won.

The company’s cash assets, meanwhile, rose by 316.4 billion won during the first nine months of this year to reach 2.66 trillion won.

Hyundai Motor’s cash assets rose to 7.47 trillion won as of September, up from the 6.23 trillion won tallied at the end of last year to record a 1.23 trillion won increase over a period of nine months.

POSCO’s cash assets rose by 525 billion won to reach 5.12 trillion won.

The OECD recently predicted a downgraded growth forecast for both the global and Korean economy for next year, saying that while the momentum will pick up, it was still too early to predict if a full rebound was in order.

Last month, the Federation of Korean Industries cited a survey it conducted on the 600 largest companies in Korea, which showed that almost 30 percent said they would be reducing their investment next year. Another 9 percent said the reduction clip would be “significant.” The respondents cited deteriorating external and internal economic conditions as the reasons behind their fiscal decision.

By Kim Ji-hyun  (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)