Breaking new ground for the Hong Kong credit markets, the bank successfully priced Asia ex-Japan's first upper tier 2 debt issue with a perpetual structure yesterday Thursday.
The $250 million offering, which secured a Baa3BB rating, was priced at 99.726% on a coupon of 9.125% to yield 8.967% or 385bp over Treasuries. Callable annually after 10-years, the bond steps up at the same date by either 100bp or 1.5 times the launch spread, calculated as 501bp over Libor. Three bookrunners comprising HSBC, ICBC and UBS Warburg, were also joined by quite a full syndicate for a small deal, with China Construction Bank, Ka Wah Capital and Merrill Lynch as co-leads and Deutsche...
