Korea Eximbank Issues $2 Billion in Global Bonds

The Export-Import Bank of Korea has issued global bonds totaling 2 billion dollars to secure foreign currency funding necessary to support future strategic industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and biotechnology.

Korea Eximbank announced on July 14 that it issued global bonds in two tranches: 1 billion dollars each in three-year and five-year maturities. The coupon rates were set at 0.18 percentage points and 0.21 percentage points above the yields of three-year and five-year U.S. Treasury bonds, respectively. The bank explained that the credit spreads for these global bonds are the lowest among foreign currency bonds issued domestically.

The credit spread for foreign currency bonds is determined by adding a premium—reflecting the issuer's credit risk and overall market conditions—on top of benchmark rates, such as U.S. Treasuries. A lower credit spread indicates that the market regards the issuer as having strong creditworthiness. The bank had originally planned to issue the foreign currency bonds in early September, but moved up the schedule by about two months in order to expand policy financing for future strategic industries including AI, semiconductors, and biotechnology.

A bank official said, "Even amid heightened geopolitical tensions and ongoing uncertainty in global monetary policy during the second half of the year, we issued bonds at record-low credit spreads. This demonstrates that global investors trust Korea Eximbank bonds as safe assets." The official added, "The foreign currency funds secured through this issuance will be actively used to support future growth sectors for Korean companies." Korea Eximbank aims to raise a total of 17 billion dollars in foreign currency funding this year. The bank plans to continue attracting leading global investors in order to support overseas expansion and investment in future strategic sectors for domestic companies.

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