Korea Land & Housing takes next slot
Government-owned Korea Land & Housing Corp seized an opportune window on Tuesday to sell a US$500m two-year bond at Treasuries plus 55bp, inside initial price guidance of plus 90bp area.
The 4.25% notes were priced at 99.476 to yield 4.527%.
A banker on the deal said Moody's US sovereign downgrade on Friday did not impact the outcome of the deal, but did prompt the issuer to push back the deal by a day to avoid pricing alongside Korea Railroad Corporation on Monday. The latter found good demand for a US$400m three-year bond, providing a tailwind for Korea Land's transaction, the banker said.
"Both deals went well and paid no new issue concession," he said.
Korean issuers have seen premiums compress since Hanwha Futureproof reopened the market on April 23 following the US "reciprocal" tariff announcement on April 2. Korean issuers in recent weeks, including Korea Water Resources, Korea Ocean Business Corp, Kookmin Bank and Posco Holdings, were also able to price flat or with minimal new issue premium.
Korea Land's notes traded 1bp–2bp tighter in secondary markets on Wednesday morning. "So everyone is happy," the banker said.
Korea Land, like Korea Water a week earlier, opted to tap the two-year part of the curve to take advantage of attractive pricing vis-a-vis the won, said the banker.
The book peaked at US$3.6bn and saw limited attrition with the final book at US$3.3bn from 139 accounts. Some 80% of the deal went to APAC and 20% to EMEA. Asset and fund managers were allocated 45%, banks 32%, central banks, official institutions and corporates 12%, insurers and pension funds 6%, and private banks, securities houses and brokers 5%.
The senior Reg S notes will be rated Aa2/AA– (Moody's/Fitch), in line with the issuer.
The proceeds from the Singapore-listed trade will be used for general corporate purposes.
BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Agricole, HSBC and Standard Chartered were the bookrunners.