이 기사는 2022년 05월 13일 07:59 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Korea Expressway Corporation has launched a $500 million US dollar-denominated bond offering, a year after its last US dollar bond issue in May 2021, according to industry sources.

The bond offering consists of a single tranche of 3-year fixed rate notes. After hosting a virtual roadshow for institutional investors from May 6 to May 9, the South Korean corporation started bookbuilding on Wednesday, capitalizing on a drop in US treasury yields overnight.

Initial pricing guidance was proposed at 120 basis points above US Treasuries. Final pricing for the bond is due to be set later on Thursday Korea time.

Korea Expressway Corporation issued a $500 million US dollar bond labeled sustainable at a record low spread in May last year. The bond sale at the time remarked its return to the US dollar bond market in three years, after the corporation raised money mostly by selling cross-currency bonds such as Swiss franc bonds and kangaroo bonds in 2019 and 2020.

Korea Expressway Corporation is the first issuer to tap the Korean paper market following the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting earlier this month. Its bond pricing results will likely help other South Korean issuers preparing for foreign currency bond sales, including the Export-Import Bank of Korea, gauge market sentiment.

Korea Expressway Corporation is rated Aa2 and AA respectively by credit rating agencies Moody’s and S&P Global. BoA Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets Securities and HSBC managed the bond sale. (Reporting by Ji-won Kim)