Hainan Airlines launches 1.7 bln yuan 'Lion City' Bond in Singapore

The Singapore branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said Friday that it had arranged 1.7 billion yuan ($273 million Renminbi denominated bonds, with maturity of three years, for China's Hainan Airlines on Thursday, representing the first ever corporate "Lion City" bonds here.

The issuance received strong support from financial institutions and various intermediary institutions in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, the ICBC Singapore said. Bond investors showed strong interest in the first corporate "Lion City" bonds with the issue being 2.3 times subscribed.

According to ICBC Singapore, the bond investors were mostly from Asia, including private banks, commercial banks, fund managers and others.

The principal issuer is Hainan Airlines (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd, with its parent company Hainan Airlines acting as the guarantor for the cross border issuance.

The Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners for this transaction were ICBC, CCB International, Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA), DBS, Deutsche Bank, Hong Kong International Securities, JPMorgan and UBS, with JPMorgan and UBS being the global coordinators.

The ICBC Singapore branch was designated as the yuan clearing bank in Singapore by China's regulator in February last year. It kicked off yuan clearing services on last May 27.

Since ICBC Singapore's designation as an offshore RMB clearing bank, Singapore has seen six successful offshore "Lion City" bond issues by financial institutions totaling 7.5 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars).

"Hainan's issue opens the market for more corporate 'Lion City ' bond issuances, further developing the Singapore offshore RMB bond market," the ICBC Singapore said.

Hainan Airlines is China's fourth largest airline company, providing domestic and international flight routes to over 89 cities in 10 countries.