HKSAR Government’s First Multi-Currency Digital Green Bonds

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (the “HKSAR Government”) issued approximately HK$6.0bn multi-currency fixed rate digital green bonds (the “Digital Green Bonds”) on 7 February 2024. The two-year multi-currency Digital Green Bonds were denominated in US dollar, euro, HK dollar and Renminbi, making this the first multi-currency digital bond offering globally. The issuance expands digitalisation in a few key areas, including the integration of digital securities with green bonds to promote a sustainable and responsible development of the digital securities market.

This bulletin provides an analysis on how the deal works and what it means for the market going forward, where we discuss the structure, regulatory considerations, key features and other considerations relating to the issuance.

Since the launch of the first digital green bond by the HKSAR Government last year, Linklaters team has advised on all of the tokenisation deals in Hong Kong, including Hong Kong’s first tokenised funds (Harvest Global Investments) end of last year, followed closely by the first Hong Kong law constituted digital note by a Hong Kong incorporated company (GF Securities (Hong Kong)) in January and thereafter the launch of digitally native green bonds by the HKSAR Government in February. We welcome discussions with market participants on potential digital securities offerings by other issuers (e.g. quasi sovereigns, corporates, funds etc), including structuring issues for consideration.