Linklaters, A&O Shearman and Ashurst have advised on two major bond issuances by China’s Ministry of Finance and the Hong Kong government, with a combined value exceeding HKD40 billion (USD5.13 billion). The latter, a HKD10 billion multi-currency digital green bond, has broken records to become the largest issuance of its kind to date.
Among them is China’s Ministry of Finance issue of sovereign bonds on the HKEX on 5 November 2025, comprising three-year and five-year tranches of USD2 billion each, with coupon rates of 3.65% and 3.79%, respectively.
Linklaters acted as the Ministry of Finance’s international legal counsel, with partners William Liu and Fang Min leading the team.
The successful issuance demonstrated international investors’ strong confidence in China’s economic outlook under the authorities’ commitment to high-level opening-up and high-quality development, Liu said.
A&O Shearman’s Agnes Tsang led the team advising lead arranger and joint bookrunners, while partner Won Lee and Song Hae-ran assisted with US law matters.
The Hong Kong government bonds, linked to four currencies, were issued on 11 November 2025, they include a HKD2.5 billion two-year tranche (2.5% coupon), a RMB2.5 billion (USD345 million) five-year tranche (1.9% coupon), USD300 million three-year tranche (3.6% coupon) and EUR300 million (USD327 million) four-year tranche (2.5% coupon).
A&O Shearman advised the Hong Kong government, with partner Agnes Tsang leading the team.
Linklaters partner Michael Ng led the team counselling the joint lead managers and fiscal agents, with the support of partner Kishore Bhindi, counsel Grace Wee and Beibei Ding.
Ashurst acted as HSBC’s legal counsel, advising on digital asset platform HSBC Orion as the bond’s issuance platform, with Hong Kong managing partner Ben Hammond leading the team.
The Hong Kong government’s digital bond is regarded as a significant step to normalise tokenised bonds and real-world assets. This offering attracted strong market demand, with the total subscription amount of the four currency tranches reaching HKD130 billion. The Hong Kong government had two successful digital green bond issuances in 2023 and 2024.
To date, the Hong Kong government has raised more than HKD200 billion through green bond financing, supporting over 100 local green projects.
