17 February 2023 Capital Markets - Debt - Capital Markets - Equity - Technology

Linklaters advises on the Hong Kong SAR Government’s inaugural tokenised green bond offering

Linklaters advised the joint lead managers and the trustee on the successful offering of HK$800m tokenised green bond* by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR Government).

The one-year Hong Kong dollar-denominated tokenised green bond was cleared and settled through the Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU) of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Beneficial interests in the bond were recorded on settlement in the tokenised securities accounts on a distributed ledger technology-based digital assets platform provided by the platform provider as an extension of the CMU.

This transaction marks several firsts in the market including:

  1. the first tokenised green bond by the HKSAR Government
  2. the first tokenised green bond by a government issuer globally and
  3. the first tokenised bond governed by Hong Kong law.

The Linklaters’ team was led by capital markets partners Gloria Cheung and Jonathan Horan, with support from counsel Grace Wee. Counsel and Head of Securitisation, Hong Kong SAR Mary Matson acted as legal advisor to the trustee, with support from managing associate Beibei Ding.

Linklaters’ capital markets partner Gloria Cheung, commented:

“Linklaters regularly advises on first-to-market digital assets and ESG-themed debt capital markets transactions. We thank our clients for the trust they continue to place in us, and our cross-jurisdictional team is delighted to have participated in this landmark transaction.”

Linklaters is at the forefront of digital asset innovation and has previously advised BondEvalue on the successful launch of the world’s first bond exchange powered by blockchain technology, BondbloX Bond Exchange, and on the first trade of BondbloX, as well as advised European Investment Bank on the issuance of its first ever notes in digital form on the Ethereum public blockchain.

*Where the beneficial interests in the bond were recorded on settlement in the tokenised securities accounts on the platform.