Industrial Bank (IB) released its first issue of special financial bonds for loans to small enterprises successfully from December 26 to 28. These are the first financial bonds specially for the loans of small and micro enterprises in the inter-bank bond market and also the first bonds to be issued after the re-opening of commercial bank financial bonds.
The main underwriters of this issue of bonds are mainly the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC). RMB 22 billion was planned to be issued in two types: fixed interest rate and floating interest rate. The issuer had the right to issue an excess of no more than RMB 10 billion. Through registering and filing, the issuer finally exercised the right to excessive issue, deciding to issue RMB 30 billion at fixed interest rates for five years, and the coupon rate was determined at 4.20%.
It is reported that the funds raised by this issue of bonds extends the financing channels of IB, and the medium- and long-term funds raised can be 100% used for granting loans (including individual business loans) to support small enterprises. This effectively solves the problem of the Bank having insufficient funding sources for loans to small enterprises and thus provides room for the Bank to improve the level of services to small enterprises and meet their financing demands.
IB indicates that it will concentrate on the development of the financial business for small enterprises, which adheres to the future trend of economic and financial development and depends less on capital. It is not only an important direction for the Bank to transform its business development model and profit model, but is also an important measure to extend the customer base and develop core customers, and more importantly, it is an inevitable choice for the sustainability of corporate finance. For a long time, IB has put great emphasis on the financial services of small enterprises and put supporting the business development of small enterprises in a prominent position, arranging the scale of special loans for small enterprises. Of which the Bank arranged a scale of RMB 20 billion as loans to small enterprises in 2010, and a scale of no less than RMB 30 billion to support credit extension to small enterprises in 2011. In addition, it assigned officers to monitor the newly-granted loans to small enterprises on a regular basis and focus on guaranteeing the extension demands of loans to small enterprises, thus ensuring that the growth rate of loans to small enterprises is higher than that of overall loans made by the Bank. By the end of September 2011, the balance of IB's loans (including discounts) for small enterprises according to national standards reached RMB 343.386 billion, accounting for 52.30% of the balance of corporate loans across the Bank. Specifically, the balance of loans (including discounts) of no more than RMB 5 million an enterprise, to small enterprises amounted to RMB 15.573 billion, increasing by RMB 7.744 billion over the beginning of this year and up 98.91%. In terms of personal business loans, by the end of September, the balance of “IB Pass” personal business loans across the Bank reached RMB 51.564 billion, increasing 25.292 billion over the beginning of this year, up 96.27%. IB indicates that it will adhere to the development philosophy of “common development and growth” in the future and be devoted to improving the level of services to small enterprises by extending the service fields, innovating financial products and standardizing financial services.