Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises on key bond issuances for Bank of China, China Development Bank, Ping An Life and Hikvision

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has advised on a number of notable bond issuances for both banks and corporates since the start of 2016, despite the general market slowdown.

Partner Connie Heng, Head of Capital Markets for Asia Pacific said, "The DCM market has been quiet due to volatility over the past several months. I'm very pleased our team has been busy with many of this year's key deals." 

Notable bank deals include advising the joint lead managers (the Bank of China Limited Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, BOCI Asia Limited, Citigroup Global Markets Limited and Standard Chartered Bank) on Bank of China's issuance of a series of notes under its US$20 billion Medium Term Note (MTN) Programme: US$600 million 1.875% notes due 2019; US$500 million 2.375% notes due 2021; and US$900 million floating rate notes due 2019.

The Capital Markets team also advised the joint lead managers on two of China Development Bank Corporation's tap issuances. The first was for US$1 billion 2.5% notes due 2020 and the second was for EUR1 billion 0.875% notes due 2018. Both listed on the London Stock Exchange and are to be consolidated and form a single series with US$ and EUR issuances from October 2015 respectively, under the RMB30 billion debt issuance programme.

Corporates such as Ping An Life Insurance were advised on the establishment of a US$1.2 billion MTN Programme and drawdown in full and the team acted for the underwriters on Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology's EUR400 million 1.25% notes due 2019. This was Hikvision's debut deal which listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. Hikvision provides video surveillance technology and is a listed subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, a state-owned company.

"In addition to a steady stream of primary issuances, we are also leading in the liability management space and expect greater use of these tools by Asian borrowers in the months ahead," added partner Matt Fairclough.

Teams involved on these deals are the following: