South Korea’s SK Hynix raised $1.5 billion in a two-tranche dollar bond deal, according to a term sheet, with strong demand from investors leading to tighter pricing.

The company, which is the world’s second largest memory chipmaker, raised $500 million in a three-year bond and $1 billion in a five-year bond, the term sheet that was seen by Reuters showed.

“We plan to use the proceedings from the bond issues to refinance the existing debt coming due,” the company said in an email on Tuesday.

The three-year bond was priced at Treasuries plus 145 basis points (bps) while the longer dated bond was at Treasuries plus 167 bps.

Final pricing for the bonds was considerably tighter than the initial range flagged to investors when the deal kicked off on Monday, as a result of strong demand.

The initial price guidance for the three-year was Treasuries plus 180 bps and the 5 year bond was flagged at Treasuries plus 200 bps.

The three year bond attracted orders worth $2.8 billion while investors lodged $3.7 billion worth of orders for the 5-year bond, according to the deal’s final statistics sent by bookrunners.

Dealmakers expect a 10% pick up in dollar bond issuance in 2024 across Asia, as the U.S Federal Reserve is expected to begin cutting interest rates later this year making it cheaper for companies to issue debt.

Reuters

Read More