South Korea priced its 10-year global bond at a yield of 55 basis points more than comparable US Treasuries, tighter than the guidance issued by the government earlier, a sale document seen by Reuters showed.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Korea Development Bank and Samsung Securities were the sale’s arrangers.
The 2.75% bonds were sold at 98.955 cents on the dollar to yield 2.871%, the document showed. South Korea had indicated a price guidance of 70-75 bps above US Treasuries.
This was South Korea’s first dollar bond since June 2014 when it issued US$1 billion of 30-year bonds at 4.143%.
The finance ministry had said it was selling the US$1 billion debt to bolster reserves against currency market volatility in case Federal Reserve policy tightening increased the risks of capital outflows this year. South Korea is rated Aa2 stable by Moody’s, AA stable by S&P and AA- stable by Fitch.