The Export-Import Bank of Korea has become the first Korean company to sell a non Taiwan dollar- denominated note in Taiwan as the so-called Formosa bond market gathers pace.

Kexim, as the state-owned bank is known, sold 500 million yuan ($82.6 million) of 10-year notes listed in Taiwan, or Formosa bonds, to yield 4.5 percent and 500 million yuan of five-year Dim Sum securities to yield 3.625 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter. Chinatrust Commercial Bank, a unit of Taiwan’s fourth-largest financial holding company by market value, sold the first Formosa bonds, which to date have all been denominated in yuan, last February.

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission said earlier this month that the limit on Chinese corporate yuan-denominated bonds may be lifted depending on the amount of yuan deposits in Taiwan. The current cap on China-registered companies is 10 billion yuan of notes and, since most issuers have been banks, the Formosa market needs some diversification, Minister Tseng Ming-chung said.

Instant-noodle maker Uni-President China Holdings Ltd. sold 1 billion yuan of Formosa bonds with a 3.6 percent coupon earlier this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales since February total about 12 billion yuan from 15 offerings, the data show. (Bloomberg)