BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Bank of China (BOC), one of China's four largest lenders, has raised nearly 15 billion U.S. dollars via five batches of Belt and Road-themed bond offerings to facilitate construction of the Belt and Road routes, reported Financial News, one of China’s mainstream financial newspaper Friday.
Its latest batch of Belt and Road bond offerings was on Wednesday, when the Chinese state-owned lender sold 8-tranche Belt and Road bonds denominated in five currencies including the U.S. dollar, Euro, Australian dollar, Renminbi and Hong Kong dollar to finance Belt and Road projects.
BOC raised proceeds equal to 3.8 billion U.S. dollars via these offerings, whose prices were all set at historically lows thanks to overseas investors' robust demand for high-quality assets amid the ample global liquidity recently.
For the Euro-denominated bond tranche, European investors bought 83 percent of the total offerings and buyers from Italy, German and France took up 45 percent of the purchasing of the tranche.
Previously, overseas investors used to concern much about BOC’s credit and operating conditions, but this time, a majority of them focused on the corresponding Belt and Road projects, asking BOC about their government guarantee, potential non-performing assets ratio, yield of returns, geological distribution, average duration, lending amount, and main investment targets.
Later, this batch of Belt and Road bonds will be quoted on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd. (SEHK) for trading and part of them will be quoted for trading on China Europe International Exchange, Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
Via issues of these Belt and Road bonds, international investors are much more willing to invest in Belt and Road programs, said a department director of BOC.
By the end of 2018, BOC operated overseas institutions in 57 countries and regions worldwide, including 24 countries alongside the Belt and Road routes. (Edited by Duan Jing, duanjing@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
