Deutsche Bank has issued its third Panda bond, raising 3 billion yuan (US$415 million) via two-year senior preferred notes. The transaction drew robust investor demand, with the orderbook surpassing 8 billion yuan.

The deal marks the largest Panda bond issuance by a financial institution since 2018. Proceeds will be used for general business activities and development.

Panda bonds are debt instruments issued by foreign entities in mainland China, allowing them to tap into the domestic renminbi bond market.

European issuers have played an important role in renminbi financing, accounting for close to 20% of total Panda bond issuance since 2005.

“Deutsche Bank is proud of its longstanding track record of driving international participation in China’s onshore bond market, both through supporting our clients with landmark transactions and executing our own funding strategy," says Alexander von zur Muehlen, the bank’s chief executive officer for the EMEA region and Germany. He is also a member of the management board.

The bank continues to play an active role in supporting the internationalization of the RMB and continuous opening-up of China’s capital markets. It has been the leading foreign bank for bonds registered with the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) in the China interbank bond market over the past four years.

Last year saw historic levels of issuance for the Panda bond market, with activity set to continue throughout this year.

Samuel Fischer, Deutsche Bank head of China onshore debt capital markets, says: “It has been a positive start to the year for the Panda bond market, with 61 billion yuan of issuance in the first three months. We continue to see strong levels of interest from both European and emerging market issuers, looking to tap into the market.”

Deutsche Bank’s third Panda bond adheres to the pre-approved programme by the People’s Bank of China, which allows the bank to issue RMB bonds in an aggregate principal amount of up to 8 billion yuan in two years, upon approval from China’s interbank bond market.

The issuance follows the bank’s successful return to the Singapore dollar bond market last month.