Hong Kong prices world's largest digital green bond offering totalling nearly $2.6 billion

By Reuters News

Sept 29 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government said on Tuesday it had priced its fourth digital multi-currency green bond offering at HK$20 billion ($2.55 billion), calling it the largest issuance of its kind.

The offering marks the first digital bonds to include tokenised deposits in the Hong Kong dollar, underscoring the Asian financial hub's ambitions to become a global green and sustainable finance centre.

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China denominated the bonds in HK dollars, renminbi, US dollars and euros.

The offering, which was oversubscribed, caters to the asset diversification needs of both local and overseas investors, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said.

Among the four tranches of the digital green bonds, the HK$5.5 billion ($701.03 million) two-year tranche was priced at 3.80% and the 7.5 billion yuan ($1.12 billion) five-year tranche was priced at 1.65%. The remaining $200 million three-year tranche and the €450 million ($510.53 million) four-year tranche were priced at 5.023% and 3.734%, respectively.

Subscription ratios across the four currencies ranged from 1.3 to 11.3 times.

Proceeds from the issuance will be used finance or refinance eligible environmental projects under the government's Green Bond Framework. These projects support environmental improvement, climate action and the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The bonds, expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, are rated AA-minus by Fitch, Aa3 by Moody's and AA-plus by S&P, on par with the HKSAR government's long-term rating, the government said.

HSBC, Bank of China (Hong Kong), J.P. Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank, among others, were involved in the issuance.



($1 = 7.8456 Hong Kong dollars)


($1 = 6.7030 Chinese yuan renminbi)


($1 = 0.8814 euros)

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