Linklaters has advised HSBC, Bank of China, ICBC and Standard Chartered as Joint Lead Managers on the first two Renminbi-denominated Bond issues by Air Liquide Finance and guaranteed by L’Air Liquide S.A.

The two bonds, totalling RMB 2.6bn, were issued on 19 September 2011.

The issues mark a first for a French company and form part of the recent and developing internationalisation of the “off-shore” Chinese currency market out of Hong Kong, a development which is being followed with interest by other French and, more widely, European corporates.

These two issues follow on notably from those of Hopewell Highway (the very first “off-shore” Renminbi issue in July 2010), and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Company, Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation and Tesco PLC in 2011, on which Linklaters also advised.

The deal was led by Linklaters’ Paris and Hong Kong offices. The Paris team was headed up by Cenzi Gargaro and Jeremy Grant assisted by Elisabeth Johnson on the English law side, and by Gilles Endréo and Véronique Delaittre assisted by Anne-Laure Jennequin on the French law side. Jeremy Webb led the Hong Kong team, assisted by Jonathan Horan and Aloysius Tan.

Linklaters regularly advises both underwriters and issuers in structuring and executing capital markets transactions – from “plain vanilla” to highly structured issues, and from purely domestic deals to the more complex cross-border transactions. The capital markets department is at the forefront of the most innovative and complex deals in the international markets.