Woori Bank issues $700 mn in ESG bonds

South Korea's Woori Bank announced on Thursday that it has issued $700 million (940 billion won) worth of foreign currency ESG (environmental, social, governance) bonds.

This marks the first foreign currency bond issuance by a commercial bank in South Korea this year.

The bonds issued this time have a dual-tranche structure with maturities of three years and five years. A dual tranche means simultaneously issuing two types of bonds with different conditions such as maturity and interest rates.

The issuance interest rates for both the three-year and five-year bonds are 4.750% per annum. The rates for the three-year and five-year bonds are set at 0.75 and 0.85 percentage points above the equivalent US Treasury yields, respectively.

The funds raised through the issuance of foreign currency bonds are planned to be used for domestic inclusive finance and overseas green energy projects.

Write to Jae-Won Park at wonderful@hankyung.com