[E-Daily Marketin Reporter KIM YEON-SEO ] COWAY (AA-) achieved a successful outcome in its bookbuilding process for institutional investors for a public offering of corporate bonds, receiving orders amounting to nine times the target amount. This success is attributed to the company’s robust profit-generating capacity, as evidenced by its record-high earnings in the first half of this year, which positively influenced investor sentiment.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 2nd, COWAY received a total of 1.8 trillion won in orders during its corporate bond bookbuilding, which was conducted with a target of 200 billion won.

By tranche (maturity), orders totaled 640 billion won for the 2-year tranche (60 billion won target), 890 billion won for the 3-year tranche (110 billion won target), and 270 billion won for the 5-year tranche (30 billion won target).

COWAY set its target yield band at -30 basis points (bps; 1 bp = 0.01 percentage point) to +30 bps relative to the rates assessed by individual private bond rating agencies. The spread over the benchmark rate, based on the amount raised, was set at -5 basis points for the 2-year tranche, -5 basis points for the 3-year tranche, and -2 basis points for the 5-year tranche. The company met its target amount across all tranches at rates below the individual private market average rates.

COWAY is considering increasing the issuance amount to a maximum of 400 billion won based on the results of the bookbuilding process.

Korea Ratings and NICEHoldings assigned COWAY a credit rating of “AA-” with a “Stable” outlook. According to NICEHoldings, COWAY has recorded excellent operating profitability, averaging 17.9% over the past five years.

Revenue for the first half of this year reached 2.7719 trillion won, a 13.9% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit for the same period rose 11.1% to 504.1 billion won. It is believed that the company’s record-high first-half performance this year, combined with its strong creditworthiness, attracted demand from institutional investors.