South Korea

The Vietnam consumer finance subsidiary of Korea’s Mirae Asset Financial Group has become the latest firm to join a flurry of Vietnamese financial institutions in the loan market.

South Korea’s Kakao Pay is revising the prospectus for its up to W1.63tr ($1.42bn) listing after the country’s securities regulator requested it to add more information to the documents, in the latest sign of an increasingly heavy-handed approach to the IPO market.

Korea Investment & Securities marketed a three year and a five year bond on Monday, raising a combined $600m.

Kakao Bank, an online-only South Korean bank, has begun bookbuilding for its up to W2.55tr ($2.2bn) IPO.

Korea Gas Corp, a government-owned borrower, found ample support for its dual tranche $800m bond, with demand of more than $5bn during bookbuilding allowing the firm to price the notes around some fair value estimates, and well inside others.

South Korea’s busy IPO market is continuing to pump out deals, with the latest listings coming from Kakao Pay and Covid-19 test maker SD Biosensor. But issuers still have to be realistic, as Krafton found out when it shot for, but missed, the country’s largest ever IPO.

South Korea's Mirae Asset Securities raised $300m from its green bond on Tuesday.

South Korean pharmaceutical company HK Inno.N Corp has kicked off pre-deal investor education for its IPO, according to a source familiar with the matter.

LG Chem got an $8.5bn final book for a $1bn dual-tranche green bond this week, with the deal pricing through some fair value estimates and ending the South Korean chemical company's two year hiatus from the debt market.

Three covered bonds issued this week from Korean Housing Finance Corp, Caffil and Oberbank were well received, but they would not have made it over the line without attractive new issue concessions.

Ahead of what is expected to be a long, dry summer in the primary covered bond market, Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) and Caffil were out on Wednesday with €1bn new issues.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) sold the first public 20 year dollar bond from a FIG issuer from the country this week — potentially paving the way for other borrowers to also opt for the same tenor. Morgan Davis reports.