Hong Kong raises $5.8b in largest-ever green deal

Bloomberg

Hong Kong sold the equivalent of $5.8 billion of green bonds denominated in three currencies, as debt markets roared back to life amid a global rush of deals.
The city priced $3 billion of dollar bonds across four tenors, a 1.25 billion euro ($1.3 billion) two-tranche note and a 10 billion offshore yuan ($1.5 billion) portion, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorised to speak about it.
Investors sent in more than $25 billion of bids for the dollar notes, said the people. That’s allowed the issuer to trim pricing on the bond, while it has also seen a strong reception to its new green notes in the other currencies. Final yields of 3% and 3.3% respectively were set on the
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.
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.