Kexim raises another $1.5 billion from bond issue

The flood of Korean paper swamping the US dollar bond market in Asia shows no sign of abating. In its second surge this year, after a successful issue in January, the Export-Import Bank of Korea Kexim raised $1.5 billion with a five-and-a-half year deal early yesterday morning Hong Kong time.

This is the eleventh dollar bond sale by a Korean issuer so far this year investment-grade Korean companies sold foreign currency bonds worth a total of $13 billion in the first half of 2009, up from $7.7 billion in the same period in 2008.

Kexim's issue was re-offered at 99.426 with a coupon of 5.875%, and just about achieved a...