South Korea

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp pared down some of its stake in Korean steelmaker Posco via an overnight offering on Wednesday, netting W164.17bn ($139.68m) from the hedge fund-heavy trade.

Hotel Lotte Co has managed to smooth over a wobble in investor sentiment for its W5.3tr ($4.6bn) IPO after accusations of bribery in the company hit the news last week. It has delayed its listing by a month, chopped the price range to bandage the situation and now looks set to go ahead, writes Jonathan Breen.

Hotel Lotte Co has sliced the potential money it can raise from its IPO to W5.3tr ($4.6bn), a cut of more than W400bn, and pushed back the deal to now launch in mid-July, according to an updated prospectus filed with the South Korean regulator.

Hotel Lotte Co has delayed the launch of its IPO, which could raise W5.7tr ($4.9bn), as it needs to file more documentation for the deal, it said on Friday — but the setback came just after the issuer’s offices were raided last week on accusations of bribery, according to sources close to the situation.

In this round-up, RMB deposits shrink further in Singapore and Hong Kong, the Stock Connect scheme southbound channel continues to dominate trading, China prepares for direct trading of RMB and Korean won, and Italian enterprises are found to be warming up to the RMB. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s coverage this week.

South Korea’s KT Corp is preparing for a dollar bond in the second half of the year, having selected four banks to work on the trade.

The Asia ex-Japan block trade market took flight this week as three overnight share sales priced on Wednesday, two of which were executed by Morgan Stanley and one by UBS.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction is selling down some of its treasury shares in a deal which could bag the firm up to W165bn ($138.3m).

Korea Gas Corp (KoGas) has kicked off preparations for its first international bond of the year, which will hit the market next month.

The former head of structured finance, commercial real estate and corporate advisory at Hang Seng Bank has resurfaced at First Gulf Bank.

Société Générale has announced several senior appointments to its South Korean business with Andrew Kim now helming the unit.

Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) set a new benchmark this week with what bankers say is the first triple tranche deal out of South Korea. The policy bank managed to bring high quality US investors into its three year notes, while also sealing tight pricing on the longer-dated portion.