The HK Mortgage Corporation has launched a $20 billion retail bond issuance programme and appointed 19 banks as placing banks to distribute its debt securities to retail investors.

The 19 banks are the Bank of America (Asia), Bank of China (HK), Citibank, CITIC Ka Wah Bank, Bank of Communications, Bank of East Asia, Chiyu Bank, Dah Sing Bank, DBS Bank, Hang Seng Bank; HSBC, ICBC (Asia), International Bank of Asia, Liu Chong Hing Bank, Nanyang Commercial Bank, Shanghai Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Wing Hang Bank and Wing Lung Bank.

Corporation Executive Director Norman Chan is confident the programme will provide an effective platform for the corporation to tap funds from the retail market.

"We also hope the new prospectuses pioneered by the corporation will set a new standard and useful benchmark for other issuers of retail bonds," he said.

The placing banks will also perform the role of market makers for the bonds to facilitate transactions in the secondary market. 

Underwriting agreements signed

The corporation has entered into an Underwriting Agreement with the Bank of China (HK), Bank of East Asia and HSBC for an underwriting amount of $600 million in respect of the four-year notes of the inaugural issue drawn under the programme.

The coupons of the three series are:

Tenor            Coupon per annum  (payable semi-annually)

2-year           2.50%

3-year           3.15%

4-year           3.55%

An investor can subscribe for one or more of the above series. The offer period will run from 9am on May 25 to 2pm on June 3.