China's issuance is its largest ever foreign currency sovereign bond

Magic Circle firms Linklaters and Allen & Overy have been called in to advise on a bumper bond offering by The People's Republic of China.

The country's Ministry of Finance sold a trio of bonds totalling €4 billion ($4.4 billion) yesterday (November 5), the largest ever foreign currency sovereign bond offering by the Chinese government and the first euro-denominated sovereign bond offering in 15 years, according to Linklaters.

The issuance was a dual listing on both the London Stock Exchange ISM and the Euronext Access Paris, and has already attracted an order book of nearly €20 billion from international investors.

Linklaters acted as the international legal adviser to the Ministry of Finance, a role it has held since 2009, advising on the issuance of the euro bonds through a joint team in Hong Kong, Shanghai, London and Paris.

The team comprised capital markets partners William Liu in Hong Kong, Richard O'Callaghan in London and Véronique Delaittre in Paris.

A&O acted for the lead manager banks on the deal. Fangda Partners advised on domestic issues, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction.

The issuance is the latest transaction that the two Magic Circle firms have worked on in. In 2017, both firms took lead roles on a $2 billion debt issue in 2017 that saw the Chinese government sell dollar-denominated bonds in Hong Kong.