Salomon Smith Barney has been appointed as bookrunner for a Y35 billion $284 million deal, with Daiwa mandated as joint-lead. The deal is expected to have a five-year maturity and observers believe that it will be launched before year-end.
For many, the key question will be whether Thailand can price through or close to Korea despite the fact that the former has a lower BBB-Baa3 rating compared to the latter's BBBBaa2. The most obvious benchmark is the recent five-year yen issue completed by the Korea Development Bank KDB, which is currently trading at about 75bp over yen-libor.
Japanese experts say that Thailand should probably trade about 10bp to 15bp outside of...
