HK government launches $2.5bn bond issue

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HK government launches $2.5bn bond issue
香港政府发行25亿美元全球债



(中文大意)

　　香港政府于周三开始近10年来首次发行政府债(sovereign issuance，也俗称主权债)做全球路演，以弥补今年出现超过50亿美元的预算赤字。路演从7月7日起，推介城市包括香港、北京、伦敦、法兰克福、洛杉矶、波士顿和纽约。

　　债券包括以港币定价的两至四年，面向散户投资人的一部分，以及以港币和美元定价的五至十五年，面向机构投资人的一部分。中国银行、美林证券(Merrill Lynch)和汇丰银行(HSBC)是此次发行全球协调人。据称，面向散户的两年债券票面利率为2.13%，四年3.38%。相对近日美联储升息，债券定价似乎偏低。

　　这次发行是为基础建设筹资，并为当地债券市场建立基准利率水平。

Hong Kong will start marketing a HK$20bn bond on Wednesday, its first government issue for more than a decade and the first to include a foreign currency component.

  
The offering is meant to help Hong Kong develop a local bond market and comes as the territory tries to reduce a budget deficit forecast to reach HK$42.6bn (US$5.5bn) in the year to next March.

The bond, which includes US dollar- and Hong Kong dollar-denominated tranches, is expected to attract strong demand because of its scarcity value and Hong Kong's strong credit rating.

Observers said international and Asian investors were likely to buy despite the volatility in international bond markets since last week's US interest rate rise.

\"Bond markets are more cautious than in the past five or six months, but investors will still want to buy fixed income from an issuer that hasn't borrowed much in the international arena,\" said an Hong Kong-based banker.

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday assigned an A+ rating to the US dollar tranche and an AA- rating to the Hong Kong dollar tranche.

The government will offer institutional investors US dollar bonds with a 10-year maturity and as well as Hong Kong dollar notes with maturities of five and 15 years.

Retail investors will also be able to buy two tranches of two- and four-year Hong Kong dollar notes.

It is understood the coupons for the two retail tranches have been fixed at 2.13 per cent and 3.38 per cent respectively.

Pricing for the institutional tranche is scheduled for next week.

Pieter van der Schaft, regional fixed income strategist at Barclays Capital, said the bond would help Hong Kong develop a more liquid benchmark yield curve.

While its stock market has the second-largest capitalisation in Asia, Hong Kong's bond market is still limited.

Its cash-rich companies tap the markets less frequently than those in other countries and the government, which enjoyed robust surpluses until 1997, has had little need to borrow.

Hong Kong last issued a government bond in the 1991-92 fiscal year. It will use the proceeds of this bond to fund infrastructure projects.

The road show starts in Hong Kong on Wednesday before moving on to the US and Europe. Bank of China, HSBC and Merrill Lynch are advisers and global co-ordinators of the bond. The banks declined to comment on Tuesday.

The government recently raised HK$6bn by issuing a bond backed by revenues from tunnels and a bridge.