KNOC seizes opportunity to price $1 billion bond

Korea National Oil Corp KNOC priced a $1 billion five-year senior bond early this morning, capturing what could well prove to be a brief window in the market. Barclays Capital, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, KDB and Royal Bank of Scotland were joint bookrunners.

KNOC is a wholly government-owned upstream exploration and production company. Its bonds priced at Treasuries plus 310bp, about 20bp inside the initial price guidance, which was in the area of Treasuries plus 330bp. The deal was said to be about eight times covered. KNOC is the first dollar benchmark to close since Kexim priced its $1 billion bond last month.

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