Slaughter and May advised MTR Corporation Limited on its first public issuance of offshore Renminbi green bonds

Slaughter and May, Hong Kong, advised MTR Corporation Limited (MTR) on its issuance of CNH3 billion 10-year and CNH1.5 billion 30-year green bonds (the Bonds) under its US$10 billion Debt Issuance Programme, being MTR’s first public issuance of offshore Renminbi green bonds. The 10-year tranche represents the largest public bond issuance of all offshore Renminbi bonds of the same tenor by corporate issuers, while the 30-year tranche is the longest tenor ever offered by a corporate issuer in the public offshore Renminbi bond market. The Bonds are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Proceeds of the Bonds issuance will be used to fund or refinance, in whole or in part, eligible investments in one or more of the categories set out in MTR’s Sustainable Finance Framework, namely, renewable energy, low carbon transportation, energy efficiency, sustainable transit stations and real estate properties, adaptation to climate change, biodiversity and conservation, water management, waste management and pollution prevention.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Mizuho and Standard Chartered Bank acted as the Joint Global Coordinators, Joint Bookrunners and Joint Lead Managers for the Bonds issuance, with ANZ, Barclays, BNP Paribas, DBS Bank Ltd., Deutsche Bank, ICBC (Asia), J.P. Morgan, MUFG, OCBC, SMBC Nikko and Société Générale being appointed as Joint Bookrunners and Joint Lead Managers for the Bonds issuance.

Slaughter and May also advised MTR on its public green bond issues in 2016 and 2020 respectively, with the former being MTR’s first green bond issue and the latter being the then largest green bond issuance in Hong Kong.