POSCO said on the 13th that it successfully issued $700 million (about 1 trillion won) in global bonds.
The bonds issued on the previous day were $400 million with a five-year maturity and $300 million with a 10-year maturity, marking the first U.S. dollar public offering by domestic corporations in the global market this year.
POSCO began investor marketing with initial price talk set at 1.15 percentage points over U.S. Government Bonds for the five-year tranche and 1.30 percentage points for the 10-year tranche.
Bookbuilding drew orders totaling $6.6 billion from more than 180 institutional investors worldwide, including Asia (67%), Europe and the Middle East (18%), and the United States (15%). That is more than nine times the offering size.
On strong demand, the final spread narrowed by 0.4 percentage point each to 0.75 percentage point for the five-year and 0.90 percentage point for the 10-year. The coupon was set at 4.5% for the five-year and 5.0% for the 10-year.
Global credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P) assigned the bonds credit ratings of "Baa1" and "A-," respectively.
POSCO plans to use the proceeds to refinance existing bonds. Refinancing refers to a financial transaction that raises new funds to repay a liability.
POSCO said the issuance carries weight because it took place amid geopolitical risks and uncertainty in global financial markets. POSCO met with 16 investors in New York, Boston and London in November and held investor presentations for 57 major investment institutions in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in January.
A POSCO official said, "Although various concerns were raised during the process, including changes in U.S. and European tariff policies, steel oversupply from China, and geopolitical risks, POSCO won investor confidence by emphasizing its strategy for the global steel market, stable financial structure, and cost-reduction efforts."