UPDATE 1-China mandates 13 banks for U.S. dollar bond issue-term sheet

(Adds details on previous deals)

By Scott Murdoch

HONG KONG, Nov 25 (Reuters) – China’s government has mandated 13 investment banks to lead a U.S. dollar sovereign bond deal, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters, its third since its international debt issuance programme was revived two years ago.

The term sheet showed there will be four tranches of bonds, which have not been rated by any agency. A person familiar with the transaction said the tranches would be three-, five-, 10- and 20-years in maturity. It would be the third transaction since 2017 when China launched its first U.S. dollar bond in 13 years. The 2017 deal raised $2 billion while a separate transaction in 2018 raised another $3 billion. Refinitiv data shows U.S. dollar-denominated debt makes up 7.54% of China’s total outstanding debt.

China sold its first euro-denominated bond earlier in November, raising $4.4 billion, or 1.02% of the country’s debt pool, according to Refinitiv. A banker with direct knowledge of the transaction said China would likely seek to raise more than $3 billion, in line with the size of last year’s deal. The term sheet for the transaction, which is due to begin Tuesday, shows the Chinese government has appointed Bank of China and Bank of Communications to lead the deal. China’s government has also mandated Bank of America Securities, China Construction Bank, China International Capital Corporation (CICC), Credit Agricole, Taiwan’s CTBC Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Mizuho Securities and Standard Chartered Bank.

Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Neil Fullick and Sam
Holmes