South Korea

South Korean bond issuers have defied a volatile market over the past week or so, selling $2.5bn of offshore bonds and giving a rare bit of good news for debt bankers — who admit they are nervous about the future. Addison Gong reports.

Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) entered the euro market for the first time on Wednesday, where it was met with a warm response for what was also the first ever social covered bond from an Asian borrower.

Korean Air Lines (KAL) closed a $350m secured deal on Tuesday backed by future ticket sales between the US and South Korea, executing the drive-by trade using a credit facility from Shinhan Bank.

An A$500m ($355m) Kangaroo bond from the Export-Import Bank of Korea on Tuesday reaffirmed Australian dollar investors’ appetite for high quality credits from South Korea, amid a fall in global issuance volume in the currency this year.

Temasek Holdings pocketed W902bn ($793m) from its second sell-down in South Korea’s Celltrion this year, after pricing it at the investor-friendly end of the range.

Ion Investments has launched a block sale of South Korea-listed Celltrion stock, targeting proceeds of up to W865bn ($764.6m).

The pricing achieved by Doosan Power Systems on its $300m capital bond is being viewed by some as “against all fundamental logic”, given the strong market technicals for high quality and shorter-dated South Korean paper.

Kookmin Bank issued the first sustainability bond from a South Korean financial institution on Tuesday, raising $300m from a deal that was covered more than six times.

Korea Development Bank hopped into the Australian dollar market on October 12, selling an A$400m ($284m) Kangaroo bond. Despite the volatility in the market earlier in the week, KDB had little trouble sealing the popular deal.

Investors could not get enough of Korea Expressway Corp’s (KEC) dollar bonds on Monday, as it closed its deal more than 12 times oversubscribed.

South Korea’s Lotte Tour Development has raked in W215.8bn ($191.3m) after wrapping an oversubscribed rights issue.

South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction (Daewoo E&C) is tapping the offshore market for a $100m term loan.