[BEIJING] For those lucky enough to have been allocated a portion of the sale, China’s US$4 billion return to the US dollar-denominated bond market provided “free money” as the notes quickly rallied in the secondary market.
Many more are likely to have missed out after the process generated enough demand to cover the deal almost 30 times over. The US$118.1 billion order book was huge even by the standards of this year’s booming bond market, following a pattern set by other sovereigns like Spain and Italy that have generated order books worth more than US$100 billion.
The sheer scale of demand meant the bonds priced almost entirely in line with Treasuries, despite the US having a strong credit rating and a much bigger role in the global financial system.
And when the bonds started trading in the secondary market, they went even further – with both tranches of the deal tightening around 40 basis points, according to a trader.
“It was so popular,” said Serena Zhou, senior China economist at Mizuho Securities, adding that some investors complained they weren’t allocated enough bonds. “Although it priced on par, it will still be free money.”
The deal was split between a sale of US$2 billion of three-year dollar notes that came in line with Treasuries, and US$2 billion of five-year bonds priced to yield just two basis points over the US, according to a statement.
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The negligible spreads over Treasuries on the new bonds were an improvement even over China’s tight prints last year, when its three- and five-year notes were priced to yield just one and three basis points over similar-maturity Treasuries.
Those notes had since tightened in the secondary market, helping drive demand for the new deal, said Xiaojia Zhi, an analyst at Credit Agricole CIB.
The two tranches generated demand from more than 1,000 accounts, although some investors may have placed orders for both bonds.
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Central banks, sovereign wealth funds and insurers were allocated around 43 per cent of the bonds, real money investors and hedge funds got 32 per cent and banks were allocated 23 per cent, with the remainder going to other investors.
More than half of the bonds were placed with investors in Asia, while European accounts got a quarter. Investors in the Middle East and North Africa were allocated 16 per cent.
The demand included US$29 billion of interest from the joint lead managers, showing that banks working on the deal were keen to add the bonds to their own books.
The sale comes amid a steady rebound in dollar-note sales by Chinese firms, after the country’s unprecedented property crisis and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes triggered an issuance slump. There has been about US$90 billion of publicly-announced sales in 2025, heading towards a three-year high, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Authorities aim to use the latest issuance to further develop a deeper yield curve that can serve as a pricing benchmark for Chinese companies.
The three-year bond priced to yield 3.646 per cent, while the five-year note yielded 3.787 per cent.
S&P Global Ratings assigned an A+ long-term foreign-currency issue rating to China’s latest dollar-bond offering. BLOOMBERG