SINGAPORE (Oct 22): United Overseas Bank (UOB), Singapore's third-largest bank, said on Tuesday it had raised five billion yuan (US$702 million or RM3 billion) from a three-year panda bond and priced it at 2.3%, marking its first such issuance since 2019.
Panda bonds are bonds denominated in Chinese yuan but issued by foreign borrowers.
UOB said in a statement that the bond offering garnered a subscription ratio of 1.73 times from both onshore and offshore investors, with new investors accounting for more than 20% of allocations.
The bond issuance is also the largest from a foreign financial issuer with a three-year tenor, according to Koh Chin Chin, UOB's head of group treasury, research and customer advocacy, in the statement.
The final coupon of 2.3% represents a spread of 46 basis points over the three-year China Development Bank benchmark bond yield, the statement showed.
UOB said it will apply for the bond to be listed on the Singapore Exchange, potentially becoming the first for a financial institution to list a panda bond on the domestic exchange subject to approval.
The panda bond issuance marks the fifth by UOB. It first tapped the market with an onshore financial bond offering via UOB (China) in April 2018.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja