China Merchants sells $500m bond

China Merchants Bank sold a $500 million three-year debt instrument on Friday morning, pricing the note at the tighter end of the final price guidance as investors clamoured for the offering at zero new issue premium.

Rated Baa1BBB by Moody’s and Standard Poor’s respectively, the Chinese financial institution via its New York branch priced the Reg S144A bond at Treasuries plus 147.5 basis points, which is 22bp tighter than its initial price guidance area, according to a term sheet seen by FinanceAsia. The offering has a coupon of 2.375%.

Asian borrowers are keen to tap global debt markets under the now-favourable market conditions...