Posco, otherwise known as the Pohang Iron and Steel Company, will launch its first corporate bond of the year on 15 January with a W300 billion $237.7 million deal via co-leads Daeshin Securities, Hyundai Securities and Samsung Securities.
The South Korean firm, the second largest steel manufacturer in the world, claims that the annual coupon of 6.99% on offer for the three-year bonds will set a precedent as the lowest to be issued by a private Korean company.
By that definition, the interest rate on this issue is higher than was available on a transaction launched in 1999 by Kepco - the Korean Electric Power Corporation - where the coupon was...