Export-Import Bank of Korea, the nation’s biggest international debt issuer, plans to sell the country’s largest-ever Samurai bond as early as this week, according to Chief Financial Officer Kim Yoon Yung.

The state-owned lender, known as Kexim, may offer more than 80 billion yen ($1 billion) of the notes denominated in the Japanese currency, Kim said in an interview in Seoul today, topping its record sale in June.

The notes will be sold in two-, three- and five-year tranches on May 17 and will be priced to yield “slightly higher than we priced last June,” Kim said.

Kexim sold a total of 80 billion yen in June, the largest Samurai bond by a South Korean issuer. That sale was also split into the same tenors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The export credit agency started marketing the two-year bonds to yield 60 to 80 basis points more than the benchmark yen swap rate, according to a person familiar with the matter on May 10. It offered the three-year notes at a spread of 70 to 90 basis points more than the yen swap rate, and five-year debt yielding 80 to 100 basis points more than the benchmark, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information was private.

Kexim’s two-year bonds were priced to yield 50 basis points more than the yen swap rate in June, while the three-year notes were priced at a spread of 60 basis points and the yield premium for the five-year debt was 73 basis points, the data showed.

BNP Paribas SA, Daiwa Securities Group Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (8411) are managing the sale, according to Kim.

To contact the reporter on this story: Taejin Park in Seoul at tpark31@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shelley Smith at ssmith118@bloomberg.net