South Korea

The Asia DCM market opened to a slew of issuance on Tuesday with Singapore duo Olam International and PSA International, Korea National Oil Corp and Japanese lender Mizuho Financial Group looking to tie up their respective dollar transactions.

Standard & Poor’s has cut its credit ratings on Standard Chartered group entities by one notch, becoming the last of the three international ratings agencies to do so over the past few months.

The vitality of the covered bond market was in no doubt over the first quarter of 2016 as volumes reached their highest level in five years.

Kia Motors Corp is ready to hit the road for a 144A/Reg S bond that could come to the market as early as mid April.

China's Fosun International is planning to spin off and list wholly-owned insurance subsidiary Ironshore, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Korea Development Bank (KDB) sold two tranches of floating rate notes on March 18, in a transaction that was driven by reverse enquiry from Taiwanese banks.

South Korea’s Shinhan Bank made a strong impression on bank capital investors this week, pricing a 10 year bullet tier two. Some of the credit for the transaction’s success goes to the fundamental strength of the issuer and the investor-friendly structure of the bond, but market participants say Shinhan’s willingness to pay up also deserves kudos.

Deutsche Bank has hired Jason Cox as a co-head of equity capital markets for Asia Pacific, as the bank lays out the management structure for the region.

A host of South Korean borrowers are queuing up to sell bonds, with rare corporate names adding diversification to the usual parade of banks and state-owned enterprises. The country’s issuers have always been adept at tapping the widest investor base, but with US interest waning they might be better off staying closer to home.

Hyundai Motor Co has sold half of its stake in South Korean state-owned Korea Aerospace Industries, raising W342bn ($291m) after pricing the block near the bottom of guidance.

Shinhan Bank is looking to tie up its first tier two bond in the international market, launching an up to $500m offering on Thursday.

Hyundai Motor Company has kicked off the sale of approximately 4.9m shares in Korea Aerospace Industries, which could net it W348.5bn ($292m).