이 기사는 2020년 01월 21일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) plans to come back to bond markets, as an investigation into its allegations of bribery is still underway.

According to industry sources on January 15, Eximbank has sent a request for proposals (RFP) to a few securities firms to select bookrunners for the offering of Korean paper, which refers to foreign currency debt issued by South Korean entities abroad. The state-run bank is expected to complete the selection process within this month, followed by issuing a foreign currency bond as early as next month.

Initially Eximbank planned to issue a yen-denominated Samurai bond at the end of last month. But the planned deal ended up being postponed, as police launched an investigation into the bank for receiving bribes in the process of selecting bookrunners for earlier Korean paper issues. As part of an investigation, the Seoul offices of some foreign securities firms were raided by police.

The investigation is still ongoing, but the bank seems to have no room to delay a bond issue further with about $1.5 billion of debt maturing this month alone.

As a complementary measure to ensure the transparency of the process, Eximbank announced that it would create the Assessment Committee that oversees the overall process of selecting bookrunners.

However, there are still concerns in the industry about effectiveness of the Assessment Committee as an ultimate solution. In this light, industry watchers are paying close attention to whether some of securities firms currently under suspicion would be act as bookrunners for the planned offering.

(By reporter Pi Hye-rim)