South Korea

A trio of South East Asian issuers have visited the Hong Kong dollar market in the last two weeks, as a move in the basis spurred demand. Among the issuers was Korea’s state-owned mining company Korea Resources Corporation (KORES), which made its debut in the currency and in the MTN format on Monday.

Market participants should be braced for political volatility as the world comes close to experiencing a pandemic.

Big Hit Entertainment, manager of popular K-pop boy band BTS, has mandated four firms to run its IPO, according to a banker working on the deal.

Korea Development Bank raised $1.5bn from the bond market on Monday as investors showed strong support for the Aa2/AA/AA- rated issuer.

Asian issuers found strong response to their dollar bonds on Wednesday, coming to the market after a rough start to the week on the back of the coronavirus-related volatility. As investors show their willingness to take on risk again, debt bankers are optimistic the pressure on the market will be lifted before long, writes Morgan Davis.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) raised $500m from a five year bond on Wednesday, becoming one of the first borrowers to reopen the dollar market after Chinese New Year and the rapid spread of a new virus.

Asia's dollar bond market reopened on Wednesday amid volatility around the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. But debt bankers in the region are cautiously optimistic about the state of the market.

Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) issued its first €1bn-sized covered bond and first negative yielding Asian covered bond on Wednesday. The strong reception was in keeping with two German Pfandbriefe also issued this week by Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank (Dapo) and Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw.

Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) issued its first €1bn-sized covered bond on Wednesday and priced the deal inside fair value. At the same time, Société Générale issued a €1bn 10 year green covered bond flat to its curve with eye-catching demand.

Green bond volumes reached a record level in 2019 and market participants think the sector is poised for another blow-out year. Korea South-East Power Co (Kosep) and ReNew Power Private gave a further boost to Asia’s growing green bond market this week, selling $750m of notes between them. Morgan Davis reports.

Korea South-East Power Co (Kosep) and ReNew Power Private gave a further boost to the growing green bond market on Tuesday.

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Daewoo has been ordered to pay $700,000 after a US Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation found one of its traders had engaged in spoofing.