Linklaters advised a consortium of multinational investment banks, as the managers, on the drawdown of the US$250m non-preferred loss absorbing capacity (LAC) bond under the US$6bn medium term note programme by The Bank of East Asia, Limited. This transaction marks the first non-preferred LAC bond in Asia (ex-Japan), as well as by a Hong Kong SAR lender.

Despite the challenges of the current market, the offering attracted a demand of approx. US$1bn, proving that investors were open to looking at new instruments in the current market.

The consortium of multinational investment banks on this transaction included: The Bank of East Asia, Limited, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Agricultural Bank of China Limited Hong Kong Branch, ABCI Capital Limited, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. Hong Kong Branch, CCB International Capital Limited, China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited and SMBC Nikko Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, among others.

The Linklaters team was led by capital markets partner Gloria Cheung.

Partner Gloria Cheung, commented:

“We are honoured to have had the opportunity to support BEA and other multinational investment banks on the first issuance of non-preferred LAC bonds in Asia. We are proud to be at the forefront of innovative developments in the international capital markets and to offer technical expertise and novel solutions to our clients.”