Portugal set to issue panda bonds

Source: Xinhua | 2019-05-24

Portugal plans to become the first eurozone nation to issue panda bonds — yuan-denominated bonds issued by a non-Chinese entity — by raising some 240 million euros (US$268 million) next week, the nation’s Finance Ministry said yesterday.

As one of the European countries that most open to Chinese investment, Portugal plans to place 2 billion yuan of three-year bonds, according to a finance ministry spokesman.

“The objective of the issue is to enter a large market with strong liquidity,” Junior Finance Minister Ricardo Mourinho Felix was quoted as saying on the financial news website ECO.

However, the amount of the panda bond issue is a small portion of the estimated 16 billion euros in government bonds and bills that Portugal plans to issue this year.

Portugal has been studying issuing panda bonds since 2017 but works on the project picked up speed after a visit last December by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the newspaper Jornal de Negocios reported.