Linklaters advises on the largest-ever digital bond issuance globally

Linklaters has advised the joint lead managers on the successful offering of approximately HKD12 billion equivalent multi-currency digitally native bonds by The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited (HKMC). The transaction represents the world’s largest digital bond issuance to date and the first digital bond issued by a public sector entity in Hong Kong SAR.

The landmark triple-series issuance, comprising HKD6 billion 2-year, HKD2.5 billion 5-year and CNH3 billion 3-year digital bonds, was issued in a digitally native format on a distributed ledger technology platform (HSBC Orion) operated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Central Moneymarkets Unit. All tranches were listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

The Linklaters team was led by capital markets partner Hanwen Yu, with support from capital markets counsel Grace Wee and solicitors Lily Wang and Suhang Chen. A separate team led by counsel Beibei Ding acted as legal adviser to the fiscal agent, supported by Cherry Lam.

Hanwen Yu, partner at Linklaters, commented, “Congratulations to HKMC on this blockbuster transaction, which is a significant development in the digital bond and tokenisation space in Hong Kong. We are honoured to have supported HKMC and the banks on this matter. We look forward to collaborating closely with our clients and to further developments in this rapidly growing space.”