Export-Import Bank of Korea Kexim continues to make its mark as an imaginative and opportunistic borrower. The Korean state-owned policy bank has an impressive recent history of taking advantage of localised demand for high-quality issuers or of open swap windows. Last week, it demonstrated that skill and agility once again.
On June 4, Kexim became the first Korean entity to tap the Taiwanese bond markets with an issue targeted at retail investors, launching a US dollar-denominated Formosa bond with a 2.65% fixed-rate semi-annual coupon. Formosa bonds refer to foreign currency-denominated bonds sold by a foreign institution in the Taiwan market.
The deal has a minimum size of $270 million, having been underwritten by the lead...