In recent years, ICBC has leveraged its strength in international and diversified businesses to support going-global Chinese enterprises to issue bonds and raise funds overseas, which has helped reduce financing costs and optimize financial structure. According to statistics, in 2013 and 2014, the Bank helped Chinese enterprises raise around RMB 287 billion by underwriting overseas bonds. The Bank underwrote 27 offshore RMB bonds, 20 high-yield USD bonds, and 34 investment-grade USD bonds for Chinese enterprises.

According to an ICBC official, to serve Chinese enterprises with overseas bond issuance, ICBC has established an international bond distribution channel and professional teams, and leveraged its strong business network to help several state-owned enterprises and excellent private enterprises issue bonds overseas. In 2013 and 2014, ICBC ranked the first among Chinese financial institutions by the amount of offshore RMB bonds and high-yield USD bonds underwritten for Chinese enterprises. At present, ICBC overseas bond underwriting business has covered several categories including general bond, high-grade USD bond, subordinate bond, perpetual bond, and preference share, with currencies including USD, EUR, HKD, and offshore RMB.

In order to help enterprises enhance success rate of issuing bonds overseas, ICBC has leveraged the Group’s advantages in international and diversified businesses and adopted multiple underwriting methods. On the one hand, the Bank has adopted diversified structural arrangements such as direct cross-border issuing, guarantee or Keep Well agreements to meet customers’ individualized financing demands. On the other hand, it has flexibly employed public placement or private placement to promote issuance. Specifically, despite sharp fluctuations in the global capital market and difficulties in bond issuing at the beginning of the year, by conducting market warm-up and securing cornerstone orders, ICBC succeeded in underwriting overseas EUR bonds for China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) and Baosteel, which helped them raise funds overseas at lower costs.