BOC International
The investment banking arm of Bank of China, BOCI, together with other BOC entities including the bank’s Hong Kong branch, has always shown leadership in both Chinese and Asian offshore bonds, ranking alongside global firms such as HSBC and Citi.
A key contributor to the overall league table credit for BOC as a group in the past, BOCI completed some 94 debt market transactions during our awards period, bringing a variety of central and local government-owned enterprises, financial institutions and private companies to the offshore market, in deals in both fixed and floating rate, senior and subordinated, dated and perpetual, and in a range of currencies including dollars, euro, yen, Hong Kong dollar as well as offshore renminbi.
BOCI introduced debut issuers such as ENN Ecological Holdings to international bonds, but it thrives by maintaining long-term relationships with its clients to win repeat mandates. It executed its 10th transaction for Sinopec, one of the highest-profile issuers from the mainland, in September last year. BOCI has helped raise more than $32 billion in the debt market for Sinopec over the years.
During our awards period, BOCI was also a global coordinator for six of Greenland Holding Group’s offshore deals, including the first floating-rate note by a Chinese property company, as well as five transactions for Yuzhou Properties. BOCI has been mandated by Greenland 14 times since 2014, and 13 times by Yuzhou.
BOCI, unlike many of its Chinese peers, was never just about earning league table credits; it believes in taking the lead role in transactions it is involved in, as a structuring adviser, rating adviser, global coordinator, and the billing and delivery bank. Its ability to do so is thanks to having not only one of the largest DCM offices in Hong Kong, but also a complete line of businesses spanning origination, execution, rating advisory, sales and trading, as well as fixed income research.
In particular, BOCI’s global sales network is incomparable among the Chinese houses, covering more than 1,000 institutional accounts across Asia, Europe and the Middle East from its hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong, London and Singapore.
But BOCI’s value-add is not just to Chinese bond issuers but Chinese investors, too, bringing them to offshore transactions such as the $2.4 billion dual-tranche bonds in March 2019 from the sovereign of Sri Lanka, where it was the only Chinese investment bank in a syndicate group of seven firms. The deal saw Chinese investors contribute just under a third of overall Asian participation for each tranche.
It also served as a bridge between Chinese investors and South Korean issuers such as Korean Air Lines and KDB Life.