After a few weeks wilting in the desert, Asia-based debt capital market bankers have suddenly been invigorated. Several new dollar deals have gone live, and expectations are high that further mandates will be awarded soon, despite Europe’s worsening sovereign debt troubles and anxieties about the state of the Chinese and global economies.
Korea, the source of the region’s most prolific issuers, is naturally in the vanguard. Korea Hydro Nuclear Power KHNP priced a $500 million 10-year deal early yesterday morning. It was the first 10-year international public bond offering by a Korean government-owned corporate issuer so far this year.
The notes pay a 4.75% coupon and were...