HSBC China issues RMB 2 bln in bonds

Sep. 8, 2009 (China Knowledge) - HSBC Holdings PLC<0005><HBC>, the biggest foreign bank in mainland China, announced Monday that its mainland unit, HSBC Bank (China) Co Ltd, issued RMB 2 billion in RMB-denominated bonds to investors in Hong Kong last Friday.

The bonds have a maturity of two years and carry a fixed coupon rate of 2.6%, according to the announcement.

The interest rate was lower than the rate of 2.8% that the Bank of East Asia<0023>, Hong Kong’s fifth-biggest lender, offered in July.

The bank also disclosed in the statement that retail investors bought RMB 1.7 billion worth of bonds and institutional investors bought RMB 300 million worth of bonds. A total amount of RMB 4.4 billion was attracted to subscribe the bonds. 

In late June, HSBC China issued RMB 1 billion in two-year floating-rate bonds to institutional investors in Hong Kong, according to an earlier report from China Knowledge.

The People’s Bank of China in June granted approval to HSBC China to issue RMB 3 billion worth of RMB bonds in Hong Kong.