HSBC raises $300m in renminbi bond issue HSBC, the international bank, on Wednesday raised Rmb2bn ($300m) in London in the first renminbi bond issue outside China and Hong Kong. The move marks a step forward in the development of China's capital markets, in the internationalisation of the renminbi, and in the UK's efforts to expand its financial links with the world's largest emerging market. Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's chief executive, said in a statement: "We are proud to be able to issue this bond. HSBC sold the three-year Rmb instruments - known as dim sum bonds - at 3 per cent in a deal that is widely expected to pave the way for other issuers, including Chinese banks. The funds will be used to finance the bank's expanding renminbi-based assets. Jean-Marc Mercier, global head of debt syndication, said the bank, which had originally planned to raise Rmb1bn-plus, had been pleasantly surprised by the strength of demand from European investors, including fund managers, private banks and institutions. He indicated that European investors were taking up about 60 per cent of the issue, with most of the remaining 40 per cent going to Asia. The planned issue comes amid a welter of announcements from Beijing on the push to liberalise China's financial markets and internationalise the renminbi. On Monday, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, widened the renminbi's trading band to 1 per cent from 0.5 per cent. London is competing with Singapore and other international financial hubs to establish itself as an offshore trading centre for the renminbi after an agreement last year between the UK and China. But there is still a long way to go in developing renminbi-based finance in London. According to the City of London Corporation, customer and interbank renminbi deposits in London totalled Rmb109bn at the end of 2011. That's a fraction of Hong Kong's Rmb566bn. Meanwhile, The Hong Kong dim sum market is growing fast, with issues almost tripling to Rmb50.7bn in the first quarter of this year from Rmb18.6bn a year earlier, according to Bloomberg. In 2011, HSBC was the dim sum market leader, followed by Standard Chartered Bank. But Beijing has this month signalled that it wants a pause in the currency's rise, perhaps to give exporters a bit of breathing space. The HSBC issue shows investors are still keen to invest in the China story, even if the potential for foreign exchange gains may be less certain than it was.