Korea Housing Finance Corporation KHFC priced a $500 million covered bond late last night, ahead of new rules that will create a level playing field for would-be issuers.
The state-owned agency priced the five-and-a-half-year issue at 100bp over US Treasuries, which the leads described as a significant discount to the theoretical value of a new senior issue.
KHFC is rated Aa3 by Moody’s, A by Standard Poor’s and AA- by Fitch the same as Korea Development Bank KDB and Export-Import Bank Korea Kexim but its covered bonds are rated a couple of notches higher at triple-A.
The joint leads Citi, Nomura and...