ICBC Asia, the offshore subsidiary of China's largest bank ICBC, sold a $1 billion alternative tier one bond on Thursday evening.
It was the first dollar bond in the AT1 format from an Asian lender this year, although United Overseas Bank has sold an AT1 deal in the Singapore dollar market.
The rarity value appeared to help the deal generated orders of around $10bn before final price guidance was announced, allowing ICBC to get away with pricing that some analysts thought was aggressive.
The perpetual non-call five year deal appealed to investors who are starved for yield at the moment but...