CCB lists $1.2b green bonds on Nasdaq Dubai

Visitors pass the China Construction Bank booth during an expo in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China Construction Bank Corp celebrated the listing of two green bonds of $700 million and $500 million, totaling $1.2 billion, on Nasdaq Dubai on Tuesday amid China's transition to green growth and sustainable development.

The issuances by the Hong Kong branch of China Construction Bank will support the bank's efforts to combat climate change as the second-largest State-owned commercial lender by assets in China looks to develop its commercial, corporate and consumer banking activities domestically and internationally.

Listed on Nasdaq Dubai on Aug 5, the $700 million bond maturing in 2025 achieved a coupon rate of 1.25 percent while the $500 million bond will mature in 2023 with a coupon rate of 1 percent. The bonds received pre-issuance certification as climate bonds from the Climate Bonds Initiative under the Climate Bonds Standard, Nasdaq Dubai said on its website.

"The successful issuance of the bonds has once again demonstrated to the international capital market the determination and commitment of CCB to implement green finance innovation and development, and reflects investors' confidence in the strategy and business of CCB," said Yuan Shengrui, senior executive officer of China Construction Bank's branch at the Dubai International Financial Centre.

In recent years, a growing number of Chinese banks issued green bonds overseas as the country is progressing toward an environment-friendly economy. Bank of China Ltd, another large State-owned commercial lender, has issued green bonds in the overseas market six times since July 2016 with a total value of more than $7 billion.

Industrial Bank Co Ltd, a leading bank in green finance headquartered in Fuzhou, Fujian province, issued two offshore green bonds of $600 million and 300 million euros ($358 million) respectively for the first time in 2018, to support the financing and refinancing of domestic and overseas green projects in a wide range of fields, including renewable energy, low emission transport and sustainable water resources management.

Chen Xinjian, vice-president of Industrial Bank, said in July the bank had issued 136.5 billion yuan ($19.8 billion) worth of green bonds since 2016 both in and outside of China, supporting more than 1,000 green projects which generated considerable environmental and social benefits.

China's domestic green bond market started in 2016 and maintained strong growth from 2017 to 2019. The country is now one of the world's largest green bond issuers.

Last year, China issued 289.6 billion yuan of green bonds, up 29.3 percent year-on-year. The growth slowed down in the first half of this year, with the value of green bonds issued during this period falling 16 percent year-on-year to 109.55 billion yuan, Lu Zhengwei, chief economist of Industrial Bank, said in a report on Wednesday.

By the end of June, 601 labeled green bonds, including financial bonds, corporate bonds, and asset-backed securities that earmarked proceeds for climate or environmental projects and were labeled as "green" by the issuer, had been issued in the domestic market. The total value of these bonds reached 1.03 trillion yuan, the report said.

The People's Bank of China issued a notice on July 8, saying that the central bank, along with the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, started soliciting public opinion on the 2020 edition of the Green Bond Endorsed Project Catalog, to further regulate the domestic bond market and unify domestic green bond-endorsed projects and fields.