On 31 October 2018, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) announced that it will hold a tender of RMB10 billion three-month Bills and RMB10 billion one-year Bills, on Wednesday, 7 November 2018 for settlement on Friday, 9 November 2018. The Bonds were issued through tendering platform, CMU BID, which forms part of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”).

Linklaters acted as international legal adviser to PBOC on this landmark project, that saw their first issuance of bills in Hong Kong. PBOC are hopeful that this transaction will help to cultivate the range of high credit rating RMB financial products in Hong Kong, and work towards improving the yield curve.

Linklaters also advised the Ministry of Finance of China (“MOF”) on its issuance of RMB5 billion Bonds in July 2018 and on its issuance of RMB5 billion and USD3 billion Bonds in October 2018, respectively. This year marks the 10th consecutive year of Bonds offerings in Hong Kong by the MOF.

Linklaters is honoured to be the only international law firm that has participated in all Bonds and Bills offerings by the Chinese government, targeting international investors, since 2009. This includes advising MOF on their first issuance of RMB bonds in London in 2016 and its first issuance of USD bonds in Hong Kong in 2017.  As the international adviser of PBOC, Linklaters also acted on PBOC’s first issuance of RMB Bills in London in 2015.

“Linklaters takes great pride in being involved in landmark deals, such as this. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the Chinese government, for their continuing trust in our services over the past ten years. We are very proud to be able to contribute to the success of these transactions.” said William Liu, Head of China for Linklaters.