Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), acting through its Hong Kong Branch, signed an agreement Monday with 13 financial institutions to raise 1 billion HK dollars (US$128 million) through an issue of floating rate certificates of deposit (FRCDs).
The issue has two tranches, with 500 million HK dollars due November 10, 2004 and 500 million HK dollars due December 10, 2004. The FRCDs pay an interest rate of 21 basis points (bps) over 3-month HIBOR (Hong Kong inter-bank offered rate), 9 bps less than last year's 3-year FRCD issued by ABC.
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited acted as joint book runners for the issue.
Rated Baa1 by Moody's, ABC is the first Chinese mainland-based bank this year to launch a publicly syndicated FRCD issue in the international capital markets. This transaction also represents the first issue under its 3 billion HK dollars certificate of deposit program that was arranged by HSBC and signed on October 22,2001.
The proceeds of the issue will be used to refinance ABC's US$130 million FRCD issue maturing on December 10, 2001.
(People's Daily November 13, 2001)
