Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance have won prized mandates helping the UK government complete its debut renminbi denominated bond offering valued at RMB3bn (£300m).

The issue was settled yesterday (21 October) after a high volume of orders pushed the yield on the three-year bonds from an expected 2.9% down to 2.7% last week.

The UK Treasury sale was largest ever RMB offering by a non-Chinese issuer, with allocations made to a wide range of investors including central banks, bank treasuries and fund managers across the world.

The proceeds will be used to diversify the UK's reserves which until this point have only included financial assets denominated in Canadian and US dollars, euros and yen.

Clifford Chance acted for the Bank of England and the Treasury on the issue, fielding a team including former global capital markets head David Dunnigan and senior associate Kate Vyvyan.

Allen & Overy advised Bank of China, HSBC and Standard Chartered as joint arrangers on the transaction. The team was led by London-based capital markets partners Geoff Fuller and Matthew Hartley with support from senior associate Peter Crossan and associate Kerry Fitzgerald. Additional advice was provided by capital markets partner Walter Son in Hong Kong and banking partner Jane Jiang in Beijing.

Fuller commented: "The renminbi is quickly becoming a vital part of the currency mix, and the UK has shown itself to be ahead of the curve once again by being the first Western sovereign to raise debt finance in this way. We expect this will prompt market participants from both the private and public sectors to follow."