.png)
.png)
Hong Kong has successfully raised US$6 billion in its largest green bond issuance to date, as part of its efforts to establish the city as a global green financing hub.
The issuance consisted of multicurrency bonds, including US dollar bonds totaling US$2.25 billion maturing in three, five, and ten years, €1.5 billion (US$1.6 billion) in four- and nine-year tranches, and 15 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion) in two-, five-, and ten-year notes.
This latest offering surpasses Hong Kong's previous record of a US$5.75 billion multicurrency green bond issuance in January, which was also the largest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) bond issuance in Asia at the time. The government aims to establish Hong Kong as an international green financing hub, as stated by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po during his budget speech in February. The government plans to issue HK$15 billion (US$1.9 billion) of retail green bonds in the current financial year, building on the HK$20 billion raised through such bonds last year.
Bookrunners for the green bonds included HSBC, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of China (Hong Kong).
Hong Kong's green bond initiatives align with its climate action plan unveiled in October 2021, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The city plans to increase its utilization of wind, waste-to-energy, and solar power to generate electricity. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu revealed at an industry conference that the Hong Kong government has issued almost US$16 billion of green bonds since its inaugural deal in 2019.
In a significant development earlier this year, Hong Kong became the first government globally to issue HK$800 million worth of tokenized green notes, opening the door for digital bond offerings in the city.
By fLEXI tEAM