Bear Stearns Plans US$500MN Bonds Issue In South Korea

Bear Stearns announced that it will sell bonds worth US$500 million in the South Korean market. Bear Stearns plans to offer these bonds next month. This is the first instance that a foreign company is floating a U.S. dollar-denominated bond in South Korea. South Korea Financial Supervisory Service announced that the seven-year Kimchi bond will be traded on the domestic stock market. Bear Stearns' total capital is US$57.6 billion as of February, and its total assets are US$300 billion. The company is the seventh-largest securities firm in terms of total capital in the United States.