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On June 4, the bond publicly offered by Zhoushan Port Group (ZPG) to qualified investors was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). It is the first listed publicly offered corporate bond after the release of the “Management Measures for Issuance and Trading of Corporate Bonds” by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), and also the first listed publicly offered corporate bond of an unlisted company.
To promote the reform and development of the bond market and enhance the capacity of the bond market for serving the real economy, the CSRC has issued this year the new measures for corporate bonds, fully meeting the requirements for transformed government functions featuring “streamlining administration, delegating power and strengthening regulation”, which was positively received by the market. Since ZPG submitted the application materials for pre-examination of bond listing in early April, it only took over a month to complete the whole procedures including the SSE completing the pre-examination, the CSRC issuing the approval document, and the issuer accomplishing the issuance and the listing. All this has fully showed the characteristics of market orientation, high efficiency and convenience in the reform of the systems related to corporate bonds.
The corporate bond issued by ZPG and underwritten by Zheshang Securities features a size of RMB700 million and a term of 5 years, with both corporate and facility rated at AA+. In May, the subscription ratio of the bond reached 4.84 times and the issuance coupon rate stood at 4.48%, the lowest rate for AA+ bonds in recent bond market, far below the five-year bank loan benchmark interest rate of 5.5%. The issuance result showed that the market institutions highly recognized the corporate bond and also demonstrated the attraction of SSE’s bond market and the advantage of the market-based pricing.
The successful issuance and listing of the corporate bond of ZPG is also another achievement made by Zhejiang Provincial Government in its pilot financial reform. According to an official of Zhejiang Provincial Finance Office, Zhejiang provincial government attaches great importance to the opportunity in the reform of new corporate bonds and actively seeks support from all parties concerned. The provincial government has made early efforts to mobilize and organize several high-quality companies in need of financing in the province, pushing them to issue corporate bonds as soon as possible, so as to explore new financing channels for the enterprises.
Earlier, the SSE released the “Rules for Listing of Corporate Bonds” and other supporting rules related to the listing of corporate bonds, further simplified the procedures for bond listing, strengthened the categorized and dynamic management of bonds, and optimized the system of information disclosure, in a bid to boost the development of the corporate bond market. Next, the SSE will continue to improve the supporting systems for corporate bonds and enhance the construction of market infrastructures, step up the service for the market, and join hands with all market participants to push forward the development and innovation of the corporate bond market and facilitate the development of the real economy.
