By pricing a dollar deal on a Friday with a negligible new issue premium in tough credit market conditions, Korea Gas Corporation Kogas managed to achieve, if not the impossible, then certainly the unlikely. In a year when a new Asian international bond issue that is not from Korea is as rare as a contemporary Australian cricketer anyone has actually heard of, Kogas convinced investors that its offering had scarcity value.
Even arch-contrarian Brayan Lai, credit analyst at French investment bank Calyon and a regular commentator in FinanceAsia's bond reports, was impressed, describing the deal as good stuff.
Kogas priced the Reg-SRule 144a $500 million issue at 390bp over...