Posco sells shares in three Korean companies to raise $514 million

Korean steel manufacturer Posco surprised the market on Tuesday evening by launching simultaneous block trades in three different Korean companies Hana Financial Group, KB Financial Group and SK Telecom. The deals were all offered at pretty tight discounts, but thanks to the fact that many international investors were underweight Korean stocks and that that these companies are all well-known names they were all well covered, allowing Posco to raise a combined $514 million.

Each of the transactions also accounted for just a few days of trading volume, which meant they were quite easily absorbed by the market. An indication of this was that two of the three companies closed above...