• Korean Air Lines pricing a US$300 million three-year senior unsecured bond at T+90bps, tightening from an initial price talk of T+130bps area. The deal received US$2.8 billion in orders across 197 investor accounts based on the unconditional and irrevocable guarantee provided by Korea Development Bank (KDB), which in turn benefits from government support as reflected in the bank’s status as a 100% government-owned policy bank and as contained in the KDB Act.
Credit markets are obviously not immune to the malaise and challenges that are inflicting global financial markets. This was illustrated in the Asiadollar market in the middle of September, with higher-than-expected US inflation putting the dampener on Asiadollar issuance, which fell to US$1.19 billion ($1.67 billion), according to Bloomberg, for the week ended Sept 16, down from US$6.14 billion in the prior week.
Of note was not the issuance amount but the issuance types, which were somewhat of a microcosm of recent primary market activity that was skewed to either high-quality government-linked or owned entities, or smaller entities backed by implicit or explicit external credit support. Issuance that week included:
