Korea Investment raises $600 mn in first foreign currency bond issue
Hyun-il Lee
Jul 13, 2021 (Gmt+09:00)
(Source: Getty Images Bank) Korea Investment & Securities Co. raised $600 million in its first foreign currency bonds at lower-than-planned interest rates on strong demand.
The brokerage on July 12 issued $300 million worth of three-year Reg S bonds, issued in the Eurobond market for international investors, and $300 million worth of five-year Reg S bonds, according to the investment banking industry.
The three-year and the five-year bonds were sold at 1.1 percentage points and 1.35 percentage points higher than the three- and five-year US Treasury yields, respectively. The spreads were narrower than Korea Investment’s initial guidance of plus 1.4 percentage points and 1.65 percentage points as it received $3 billion worth of orders in the bookbuilding.
The sale came as Korea Investment needs dollars to increase overseas investments.
Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Agricole and Korea Investment & Securities Asia Ltd. underwrote the bond issues.
Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor's (S&P) rated Korea Investment at Baa2 and BBB, respectively.
Before Korea Investment’s latest bond issuance, Mirae Asset Securities was the only South Korean brokerage that sold corporate bonds in dollars.