Hana to underwrite $65 mn ESG bonds on US rail funding

South Korea's Hana Financial Investment Co. is set to underwrite 75 billion won ($65 million) worth of senior bonds linked to environmental, social and governance (ESG) themes for a US high-speed railway project.

Morgan Stanley is the lead underwriter of the senior tranche to raise a total of 440 billion won ($380 million) for the 5.55 trillion won ($4.7 billion) infrastructure project, according to investment banking sources. 

The funds will be used to build and operate the high-speed railway in the US. It was first reported by the Herald Business Newspaper on Thursday. No further details about the project were immediately available. 

Hana has already sold down half of its portion of the ESG bonds to foreign institutional investors before its issuance. That compared with its past underwriting practices for overseas alternative investments which it tended to sell down to domestic institutions, as many other Korean brokerage companies did.

Hana will place its priority on ESG-themed investments in infrastructure and renewable energy sectors, the daily added.

insight@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.