CICC
As China’s leading investment bank, CICC has long proved its worth when it comes to executing deals for mainland clients and helping them tap the global investor base.
It has increasingly been trying to do the same elsewhere, for example by building new relationships with clients in Central and Eastern Europe, and Central and West Asia for key Belt and Road initiatives.
Kazakhstan, which has emerged as a hub for BRI financing in the region, has been one of CICC’s primary areas of focus. In 2018, CICC Hong Kong Securities became a member and settlement participant of the Astana International Exchange. Since then, its efforts in the country have picked up steam.
In July last year, CICC officials gave a keynote speech at the Astana International Financial Centre, following which they signed a memorandum of understanding with Astana on collaboration over renminbi-denominated fixed income instruments. CICC followed it up with a speech at the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December 2019, as a way to introduce Kazakh bonds to the China debt market.
CICC has been tapped as a joint lead underwriter on a planned Rmb3 billion ($440 million) panda bond from the Eurasian Development Bank, a multilateral financial institution headquartered in the Kazakh city of Almaty. The deal is expected to hit the market this year.
CICC, which is led by Huang Zhaohui, is also talking to other sovereigns in the region about issuing panda bonds. Some of the proceeds will be earmarked for Belt and Road-related projects and investments.
The next step will be trying to convince CEE and CWA companies to list in Hong Kong or China. CICC has already started trying to woo BRI-linked firms from southeast Asia and India to float in Hong Kong.