Lingang Group issues US$110 million overseas in social responsibility bonds

The Lingang Group issued 800 million yuan (US$110 million) of offshore yuan social responsibility bonds in overseas markets on June 18, making them the world’s first offshore yuan social responsibility bonds issued by a non-financial institution.

On June 26, the bonds completed their listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, also making them the first social responsibility bonds from China to be listed on the LuxSE.

This bond is jointly coordinated by JPMorgan Chase and HSBC as the Global Coordinators, with a maturity of three years and a final price of 3.15 percent, which is 30 basis points narrower than the initial price guidance.

The peak order book reached 3.45 billion yuan, with a peak oversubscription multiple of 4.3 times and a final oversubscription multiple of 3.5 times.

The issuance interest rate reached the lowest level for the same type of Chinese non-financial corporate bonds in the same period in nearly a decade, successfully attracting a large number of domestic and foreign investors to subscribe.

At the same time, it has obtained order structures from well-known investment institutions in Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other regions, as well as mainstream institutional investor types including asset management, hedge funds, commercial banks, and private banks, all of which are rare in the current market.

The final pricing structure was pure overseas. Institutional investment accounts for over 33 percent, while non-bank asset management, funds, and other financial institutions accounted for as high as 39 percent, far superior to other bonds issued during the same period.

The Lingang Group was the first to introduce two authoritative overseas environmental, social, and governance review agencies and advisory mechanisms – Moody’s and Lianhe Green Development – to provide a second party opinion (SPO) on the group’s sustainable development financing framework; with JPMorgan Chase serving as the exclusive consultant for the sustainable development framework structure, fully reflecting the Lingang Group’s comprehensive strength and practical achievements in sustainable development.

The Lingang Group officially released its “Sustainable Development Financing Framework,” and obtained dual third-party opinion certification from Moody’s and Lianhe Green Development.

The framework has received Moody’s SQS2 (excellent) sustainable development quality score and an evaluation opinion from Lianhe Green Development as robust (sound).