Hopewell Highway Infrastructure Limited (HHI), a leading toll-road infrastructure company in Hong Kong, has announced that it concluded a two-year institutional subscription for the 1.38 billion yuan (203.7 million U.S. dollars) corporate bonds on Wednesday.

It was the first Hong Kong corporation to issue RMB bonds in Hong Kong.

The company held a celebration party on Thursday, which was co- organized with Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK), the sole bookrunner and lead manager for the bonds issue.

The bonds, carrying an interest rate of 2.98 percent per year, due in July 2012, was well received by the market with 13 applications from institutional investors and a total subscription of 2.19 billion yuan, doubling the one-billion-yuan target issue size, said the company in a statement released late Wednesday.

In response, the company increased the issue size to 1.38 billion yuan.

Proceeds from the issue of the bonds will be used to develop and expand the business and for general financing purposes, the company said.

The issuance of the first RMB corporate bonds "not only contributes a new class of debt securities to the local RMB bond market, but also initiates a new funding channel for local companies with mainland investment," said He Guangbei, vice chairman and chief executive of BOCHK.

"We have received overwhelming response from the institutional investors. The demand for RMB corporate bonds is therefore a good sign of a healthy market. We anticipate more local companies to issue RMB corporate bonds in the future." (1 U.S. dollar is equivalent to 6.78 yuan)