DeHeng Advised China Everbright Group on Issuing

the First Corporate Bond under Registration-based System on SZSE

2020-03-17

On March 16, 2020, Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) completed the bookkeeping of China Everbright Group's phase-1 renewable bond of 2020 which was the first corporate bond issued under the registration-based system on SZSE after the newly-revised Securities Law went into effect, and also the largest issuance of subordinated renewable corporate bond with the lowest interest rate recently.

The offering was subject to the optimized review process of SZSE and took only seven working days to complete the procedures from application to the completion of registration. It raised RMB 2 billion, with a term of 3+N years and a coupon rate of 3.4%. This bond was a renewable bond with subordinated terms, the first special type of corporate bonds approved after the registration system was introduced for corporate bonds, and played an important role in reducing the leverage ratio and increasing the investment scale for the issuer.

Co-initiated by the Ministry of Finance and Central Huijin Investment Ltd., China Everbright Group, after 36 years of development, has become a major state-owned financial holding group with financial and industrial businesses in Hong Kong and the mainland, institutions and  business all over at home and abroad. It has full financial licenses, specialty businesses in environmental protection, tourism, health and high-tech industries, and strengths in comprehensive finance, industry-finance cooperation, and operations in both the mainland and Hong Kong. Since 2015, the China Everbright Group has been ranked among the Fortune Global 500 for six consecutive years. In 2019, it made it to the top 300 on the list with a revenue of more than RMB 200 billion.

As the legal counselor for the issuance, the DeHeng team was led by partners Zhao Yanan and Ma Kai from its Beijing office, with primary support from lawyers Bi Yumei, Xie Simeng, Zhu Binqian and Jia Ziyi. They worked closely and actively with the issuer, underwriters and other stakeholders and provided comprehensive, professional, efficient and high-quality legal services for the issuance.