United World Chinese Commercial Bank has become the first Taiwanese issuer of Hong Kong dollar debt, raising HK$300 million $38.5 million via a three-year, floating rate certificate of deposit FRCD. The issue will be priced at par with a coupon of 3-month HIBOR plus 30 basis points. UWCCB is rated A3 by Moody's and demand for the relatively small issue should be robust given that no other Taiwanese credits are available.
UWCCB is 30% owned by the Taiwan government and is the island's eighth biggest bank in terms of assets. We are planning to increase our presence in Hong Kong by upgrading our representative office into a full branch in...