On 17 July 2017, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) successfully completed its first issuance of RMB10 billion exchangeable bonds to domestic public investors. It is currently the largest issuance of exchangeable bonds in China's securities market, with an issuance of RMB7 billion offline and an issuance of RMB3 billion online. The coupon rate of the bonds was set at 1.00% of the lower end of price inquiry range. These all set records in the market.
CNPC is one of the key state-owned enterprises and major oil and gas producers and suppliers in China, and is one of the world's Top 500 enterprises. On 25 July 2017, the RMB10 billion exchangeable bonds were listed on the Centralized Competitive Pricing System and Integrated Electronic Platform for Fixed-income Securities (the Electronic Platform) of Shanghai Stock Exchange, and are referred to as "17Zhong You EB "with a bond code of "132009". The stocks to be exchanged are A-share stocks of PetroChina Company Limited held by CNPC. The bonds have been actively subscribed by investors and captured lots of attention in the capital market.
Acting as CNPC, the issuer's counsel, KWM participated in all aspects of the transaction, including drafting and revising a number of transaction documents and information disclosure documents, preparing prospectus, providing the issuer with legal opinionson the issuance, and was highly appreciated and recognized by the issuer. The project was led by partners Gao Yimin and Han Jie, and greatly supported by partner Song Yanyan.
Gao Yimin commented, "CNPC is a long-term client of KWM. We are pleased to assist CNPC in the successful completion of the bond issuance, which marks an important step in its continuous business reform. This is also a representative and exemplary case in China's capital market, especially for large state-owned enterprises. As a leading law firm in securities and capital markets, by virtue of the team's innovation ability, KWM once again assisted our client in enriching financing channels, optimizing the allocation of resources, and achieving strategic layout in the capital market."
