The Korea Asset Management Corporation (Kamco) is gearing up for its second non-performing loan-backed bond issue on August 31, according to an agency official.
The domestic issue will be W300 billion ($253 million) and backed by so-called "special" loans made to companies undergoing court-approved restructuring that Kamco has purchased from commercial banks. Daewoo Securities and Tongyang Securities have been mandated as lead-arrangers.
Domestic securitizations can be arranged relatively quickly, as the level of historical information and analysis required for international deals is not required in Korean ABS.
The official added that Kamco plans on issuing roughly W500 billion in asset-backeds every month starting in September. Its last ABS issue in June was W320 billion and arranged by co-leads Samsung Securities and Hyundai Securities.
Separately, Kamco recently set up an asset management joint venture with Archon Group L.P., a unit of Goldman Sachs. Kamco has a 35% stake in the company, which will manage at least W300 billion of bad loans purchased by Goldman in past auctions, said another agency official.
In May, Goldman affiliate, GS Special Opportunities (Asia) Fund, led a group of investors that bought two of four asset pools (all four pools totalled W915 billion), while last September, Goldman itself purchased NPLs with a face value of W207.5 for W25.4 billion.
The U.S. investment bank is the second foreign investor to form a local joint venture to manage bad loans purchased from Kamco. Earlier this year, Texas-based Lone Star Fund the biggest buyer of Kamco assets to date set up an affiliated asset management and servicing company called Hudson Kamco. VC
