Considered as the most globalized Chinese bank, Bank of China (BOC) provides a wide range of financial services for clients across onshore and offshore China as well as more than 64 countries and regions. The strong cross-border business franchise has made BOC the top choice for customers with related business.
The bank continues to assist high-quality issuers in the onshore and offshore financial markets, thus fulfilling its mission of showcasing to the world the value of Chinese credit. BOC offers comprehensive financial, investment and wealth management products to individual, corporate and institutional clients. Its flagship products include cross-border bonds such as offshore and panda bonds.
In 2024, BOC again secured the first place in the offshore China bond market, marking the ninth straight year that the bank has clinched the industry’s top accolade. As of 31st December 2024, BOC has underwritten 107 deals amounting to US$3.05 billion which covered 50% of the total deals during the year. Recognized for its innovation abilities, BOC provides a full range of services in the debt capital market, including a variety of products in US dollar, euro, offshore renminbi, Hong Kong dollar, Macau pataca, Singapore Dollar and Australian dollar. BOC successfully helped China Huaneng, China National Petroleum, Aluminum Corp of China, China Development Bank, Henan Investment Group, Wuhan Metro and others to return to the offshore market in 2024.
The bank aims to effectively build a bridge between the domestic and international markets through its leading underwriting services and selling abilities. The bank was lead underwriter for the Ministry of Finance of China in its USD-denominated sovereign bond in Riyadh and EUR-denominated sovereign bond in Paris. It reflected China’s determination to promote high-level financing, opening up to the world and improving the pricing benchmark for Chinese issuers. Especially for the USD bond, which was the first issuance in the Middle East as well as the first sovereign issuer to issue bonds and raise funds in KSA. It achieved the most successful issuance made in history at a price closest to the USD benchmark interest rate. These three "firsts" made this issuance even more special and significant. Besides, Bank of China, the only Chinese Underwriter in the deal that brought in orders from several Asian investors including sovereign institutions, funds, and asset management firms, assisted the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to issue a 3.5 billion senior unsecured Sukuk USD bond.
BOC has also brought to market a series of innovative solutions, including traditional international fixed income products that meet local regulatory requirements. BOC printed the World’s First Belt and Road Initiative (“BRI”) Partner Sustainability Notes, which were issued through its Macau, Hungary and Panama branches. This was another innovative issuance for Bank of China with its aim to fully support the 8 major steps China will take in the BRI-partner contruction and jointly help build the BRI-partner countries in terms of livelihood improvements and green development. Bank of China, as the joint global coordinator, also assisted China National Petroleum Corporation in successfully pricing 1 billion yuan of Hainan Free Trade Port offshore RMB bonds, with 2 years for the tenor and 2.6% for the yield.
BOC is a pioneer and leader in the green bond market. It has underwritten offshore green bonds amounting to more than 23.79 billion yuan as of 31st December 2024, topping the list of Chinese underwriters. The Bank of China Frankfurt branch successfully issued the world‘s first SGS (Sustainability-linked, Green and Social Loans) bond and also the first drawdown under the Bank of China’s SGS bond framework, representing another new innovation in the bank's bond issuance strategies.
Since the Panda bond market reopened in 2014, BOC has dominated the underwriting league table and driven product innovations with significant issuance milestones. In 2024, the bank continued its market leadership, ranking first in the China Interbank Panda bond market with a share exceeding 25%. During the year, BOC has introduced several notable issuers to the onshore market: BASF Group and Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, both Fortune 500 companies from Germany, making their debuts in June. BOC also assisted Shangri-La Group with its debut issuance, making it the first Hong Kong-listed hospitality company to enter the Panda bond market. Last but not the least, BOC supported Suzano, a world-leading Brazilian pulp producer, in issuing its 1.2 billion green Panda bond, the first issuer from South America and the first corporate Panda bond from the Americas.
Leveraging its globalized and integrated financial service network, BOC has managed to set up a multinational franchise for clients – mobilizing the bond underwriting and distribution capabilities of its teams in Hong Kong, London, Singapore and Luxembourg.
With the ongoing reform and opening-up of the Chinese capital market, BOC will seize the opportunity to grow into a more internationalized and multifunctional bank, contribute to create a more resilient, well-functioning, international and globally coherent debt capital market environment in China.
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