SEOUL: One South Korean bank said on Tuesday that its plans to sell $400 million of dollar denominated debt had been hit by market turmoil, while another said it was still evaluating its options having seen potential investors shun issues due to liquidity problems.
Hana Bank , South Korea's fourth-largest bank by assets, said it had pulled its 5-1/2 year dollar-based transaction to refinance $400 million subordinated bonds due in late September, noting that the returns demanded by investors had risen by more than 1 percentage point.
"Instead, we decided to issue the bonds in won," a Hana Bank spokesman said.
Shinhan Bank , the country's No.3 commercial lender by asset, said it had planned to sell up to $1 billion in dollar bonds but was now evaluating its options.
"There is no demand. The market is frozen," a Shinhan Bank official said.
However, both banks said that their foreign-currency funding remained sufficient to meet their requirements.
Markets have frozen up and risky assets have come under pressure due to concerns over financial contagion from a potential Greek debt default.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.