Korea Development Bank Issues $1.5 Billion Global Bonds

Domestic Institutions Begin Foreign Currency Public Bond Issuance This Year... Establishing Korean Benchmark

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The Korea Development Bank announced on the 11th that it has issued global bonds totaling 1.5 billion dollars to investors worldwide.

The bonds were issued as fixed-rate bonds consisting of 700 million dollars with a maturity of 3 years and 6 months, 500 million dollars with a maturity of 5 years and 6 months, and 300 million dollars with a maturity of 10 years.

This Korea Development Bank global bond, marking the start of foreign currency fundraising in the new year, was issued at the lowest spread in the bank’s history despite recent concerns over the resurgence of COVID-19.

An official from Korea Development Bank explained, "The strategy of proactively issuing bonds early in the year targeting investors’ abundant liquidity was effective, attracting valid orders approximately 3.1 times the issuance amount," adding, "This reconfirms the strong interest and trust of global investors in the resilient Korean economy even amid the COVID-19 situation."

The bank expects that this global bond issuance, which offers benchmark interest rates for various maturities, will help Korean institutions reduce costs when issuing bonds in the future.

In particular, the 700 million dollar bond with a maturity of 3 years and 6 months was issued as a Green Bond and will be used to support Green New Deal projects such as secondary batteries and renewable energy-related businesses. Including this, the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) bonds issued by Korea Development Bank amount to 2.6 trillion won in Korean won and 2.09 billion dollars in foreign currency.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.