2018.03.12
In early 2018, Air Liquide was approved to register with the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (“NAFMII”) for its private placement of debt financing instruments through Air Liquide Finance (“Air Liquide Finance”). In March 2018, Tranche I and Tranche II issuances of such instruments have been completed successfully.
Founded in 1902, Air Liquide is the largest supplier of industrial gases and medical gases and related services in the world, producing oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other gases and providing related services. It is now present in over 75 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top 500 companies. This is the first time that NAFMII has approved an oversea issuer to issue bonds on the China Interbank Bond Market under guarantee, and is also an innovation in panda bond issuances.
In this issuance, JunHe acted as the PRC counsel of Air Liquide Finance, advising Air Liquide Finance on PRC legal issues involved in the issuance, responsible for the drafting, reviewing and revising of all the transaction and filing documents, and assisting in all the communications with the PRC government. As the innovation contained in this project and the release of new placement rules also ramped up the uncertainty of the entire project, JunHe devoted great efforts to further studying the relevant laws and regulations and fully communicating with both the regulatory authorities and the client. With JunHe’s assistance, the issuance was completed successfully.
This project was named “Huanhuan”, the name of the panda given by the PRC government to France. The success of this project further promotes the opening of the China bond market and strengthens the friendship between China and France. It is also the second panda bond issuance by a European company to use JunHe’s services since the Veolia Environment’s issuance of panda bonds in 2016.
Partner YU, Yongqiang (YY) led the JunHe team that represented Air Liquide in this project.
