China's Big Banks Throw a $22 Billion Test at Hybrids Market
- Flood of issuance will put pressure on convertible-bond prices
- Investors demand higher coupons after last year’s stock rout
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China’s banks’ urgent want for cash is threatening to overload the country’s fledgling convertible-bond market.
Four lenders are due to sell as much as 146 billion yuan ($22 billion) of the hybrid securities by the end of June after the regulator approved the deals in recent weeks. That includes what could be the largest such offering China’s domestic market has ever seen: Bank of Communications Co.’s 60 billion yuan issue. The fundraising total would be twice the amount raised in all of 2018, data compiled by Bloomberg show.