Korea's Samsung Card Co. is preparing to close a cross-currency swap transaction before the end of the year to hedge a recent USD300 million cross-border asset-backed securities deal. Senior officials at the credit-card company in Seoul said the firm will look to convert dollar-denominated proceeds from four-year U.S. LIBOR floating rate notes securitized by credit card receivables into a fixed position to match cash flows. "We're monitoring this and will execute the transaction at the appropriate time," said an official, declining to elaborate on target rates. Standard Chartered, the arranger of the ABS deal will act as the counterparty in the swap. "They're well-established in the Korean swap market," the official added.
Additionally, the company is finalizing its funding strategy for next year, according to financial specialists at the firm. Samsung Card will likely shift toward issuing larger-size fixed bonds in the domestic market rather than rolling over short-term commercial paper due to expected interest-rate rises, according to officials in the financial planning department. If rates stabilize or move downward in the next year or so, the company will look to employ interest-rate swaps to temporarily convert the liabilities into floating in order to pick up short-term gains.
