Following the recent establishment of a $1.5 billion euro-MTN programme under the aegis of Morgan Stanley, the AA3 rated credit hopes to launch its first international dollar bond since April 1996 via joint leads HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney.
The deal represents the first benchmark borrowing by a Hong Kong sovereign-rated credit since the end of 2000 and as such is expected to be well received by a market starved of much supply by any Asian high grade name. This factor in tandem with the group's defensive, utility style credit profile and huge retail bid from Hong Kong will almost certainly propel the deal towards tighter than expected pricing.
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