HSBC issued VND600 billion ($25.7 million) worth of bonds on Monday, becoming the first foreign bank to do so in Vietnam.
The bonds have a coupon rate of 5.8 percent and a tenor of three years. The lender said the issuance was oversubscribed.
“We plan to be a regular issuer as we look to position our franchise to continue to be the leading foreign bank in the market,” Tim Evans, CEO of HSBC Vietnam, said in a statement.
The bank will use the proceeds to increase operating capital and diversify local currency funding sources.
Ngo Dang Khoa, its country head of global markets, said Vietnam is among the fastest-growing bond markets in Southeast Asia with issuances accounting for 9.01 percent of GDP in 2018 and 11.3 percent last year.
But it is still small compared to 20-50 percent in other Asian countries like South Korea and Singapore, he said.
So the country needs to do more to encourage investors to buy bonds, and make its legal framework more comprehensive, he said.
Corporate bond issuances rose by 50 percent year-on-year in the first six months of the year to VND159 trillion ($6.8 billion), according to the Hanoi Stock Exchange. Over 59 percent of it was by banks and property developers.
The government recently made moves to tighten bond issuances amid concerns that companies will not be able to repay their debts.
It issued a new decree limiting companies to two issuances a year and to a total value of five times their equity.
By Dat Nguyen @ VNExpress