The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority held a press conference at 3 p.m. to call on the public to be more vigilant in response to the rising activity of respiratory tract infections.
Director of the Communicable Diseases Division of the Center for Health Protection, Zhang Zhujun, Director of the Emergency Response and Project Management Division of the Center for Health Protection, Eric Au, and General Administrative Manager of the Hospital Authority, Li Liye, will attend.
The AA plans to issue HK$5 billion in retail bonds with a fixed interest rate of 4.25% per annum. Financial Executive Director Li Peikeng hopes to allow the public to participate in the financing of third-run projects through the issuance of retail bonds. Since no institution has issued retail bonds in Hong Kong for many years since 2008, he believes that now is the right time.
Li Peikeng pointed out that interest rate pricing takes into account factors such as current bank fixed deposit interest rates and market investment channels; the senior notes issued by the AA earlier this week also set the pricing reference for this retail bond issuance, enhancing pricing confidence. .
He also said that due to the impact of the epidemic, the demand for financing for the third run was relatively large. The AA previously chose to issue US dollar bonds for financing. However, as the demand for funds decreased, the issuance of Hong Kong dollar bonds could also meet the demand. In addition, the AA operates mainly in Hong Kong dollars, and the cost of issuing bonds is lower than that of US dollars, so it is issued in Hong Kong dollars.
Li Peikeng emphasized that the AA’s overall financing cost is only 3%, which is a controllable level, and this issuance is also in line with borrowing costs. He pointed out that although the interest rate of the retail bonds this time is higher than that of the senior notes issued earlier, the timing and terms of issuance of the two are different. The AA will issue bonds according to funding needs and may not be able to grasp the best time 100%.
Regarding the earlier rating agency’s downgrade of Hong Kong’s rating outlook, he believes that the response to the subscription of the senior notes issued by the Airport Authority earlier showed that investors are very confident in the development of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong airport.
2024-01-04 04:11:05
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