Campbells advised Huafa 2024 I Company Limited (“Issuer”), a wholly-owned BVI subsidiary of Zhuhai Huafa Group Co., Ltd. as BVI legal counsel on its first issuance of RMB1.4 billion (US$192million) 4.5% guaranteed Digitally Native Bonds (“DNBs”). The DNBs were dual-listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEX) and the Chongwa (Macao) Financial Asset Exchange Co., Ltd. (MOX).
The DNBs were issued in dematerialised registered form and cleared through The Central Money Markets Unit of The Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The DNBs and the beneficial interests were created and recorded on a digital asset platform. This transaction marks the first-ever digitally native bonds listed on HKEX with a BVI entity as the issuer and the first-ever digitally native bonds issued by a Chinese state-owned enterprise. In addition, this is also the first digital bond issuance that has the benefit of a cross-border guarantee provided by a Chinese company and the first digital bond issuance that has a term of more than one year on the platform.
Zhuhai Huafa Group Co., Ltd. is Zhuhai’s biggest state-owned conglomerate in the People’s Republic of China and one of the companies listed among the Fortune China 500. Its businesses cover various sectors including urban city operations, real estate development, financial industry, business investment, commerce and trade services and modern services.
Linklaters (Hong Kong) acted as the legal adviser as to English and Hong Kong laws to the joint lead managers and King & Wood Mallesons (Hong Kong) acted as the legal adviser as to English and Hong Kong laws to the Issuer.
