Hong Kong began marketing green bonds in multiple currencies Wednesday, adding to a global rush of deals, as borrowers take advantage of a recent debt-market recovery.
(Bloomberg) — Hong Kong began marketing green bonds in multiple currencies Wednesday, adding to a global rush of deals, as borrowers take advantage of a recent debt-market recovery.Â
The city is offering benchmark-sized dollar bonds across four tenors, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it. It’s also marketing green notes in euros and the offshore yuan.Â
Final price guidance has been set at 3% and 3.3% respectively for 2- and 5-year offshore yuan bonds, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s as much as 50 basis points below initial guidance.
Hong Kong sold some $3 billion of dollar- and euro-denominated green bonds in November 2021, and days later issued its first such note in yuan. The government also raised HK$20 billion ($2.56 billion) in May 2022 from its first green bond for retail investors, part of the city’s efforts to become a sustainable-finance hub.Â
The start of 2023 has seen issuers globally rush to sell debt as borrowers are look to taking advantage of falling bond yields the past couple months. The beginning of years is historically a busy period for new bond sales. For Asian issuers, the dollar’s late-2022 pullback has also proved opportune to sell bonds denominated in that currency.Â
The global bond market entered a rare bear market last year as central bankers led by the Federal Reserve sharply raised interest rates to fight climbing inflation. But the market recovered some to end 2022. Spreads last week on investment-grade dollar bonds in Asia outside Japan reached their narrowest level in three months.
(Updates throughout.)
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