Korea Expressway joined the rush of borrowers last week as it priced a $700 million bond late on Thursday night. The state-owned expressway builder closed the books at the tight end of price guidance to finalise a deal that paid investors a yield of 230bp over US Treasuries. The notes mature in March 2015.
The benchmark-sized deal attracted $5.6 billion in orders from 233 accounts, which prompted the bookrunners to tighten the price guidance to 230bp-235bp during the marketing -- considerably tighter than the early talk of 250bp. However, the final price still represented a 10bp premium over Korea Expressway's quasi-sovereign peers. The deal was also priced at an attractive spread over...