Hong Kong's investors may need to spend as little as 20,000 yuan to buy yuan-denominated bonds, market sources said.
The first yuan bonds, issued by mainland policy lender China Development Bank, are set to become available in the city by the end of this month.
The retail tranche of the sale will be at least one billion yuan, while the institutional portion could be two to three times bigger, according to a source.
The minimum amount for retail subscription would be the same as the 20,000 yuan limit an individual could buy each day. It would also be the smallest amount among all retail bonds available in the city.
HSBC and Bank of China (Hong Kong), the arrangers of the first yuan bond sale, were in talks yesterday with 10 to 15 retail lenders regarding the distribution of the bonds.
A source said a lot of details had not been finalised such as the maturity of the issues and their interest rates. The bonds are expected to be well received as the yields could be much higher than the yuan deposit rates in Hong Kong, which stand at 0.6 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
