KARACHI: Pakistan has received five bids from Chinese firms to help it raise funds via Panda bonds on Thursday, a Bloomberg report confirmed.

Panda bonds are a type of debt security issued by foreign entities in the Chinese capital markets, and they are denominated in Chinese yuan, according to a Dawn.com report. These bonds allow foreign issuers, including multinational corporations, international financial institutions, and sovereign governments, to access capital from Chinese investors.

“The government had gotten three offers from law firms and two from credit rating agencies by the time its deadline for proposals expired,” the report said, adding that two local firms had also shown interest in working as “domestic legal counsels for issuing the bonds”.

Bloomberg said that the finance ministry “was evaluating the proposals before making a final selection”.

The country is keen to tap Chinese investors by selling as much as $300 million in panda bonds for the first time ever this year, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had said in March.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the minister said that selling yuan-denominated debt would allow Pakistan to diversify its funding sources and reach investors in a new market.

“It’s something we should have looked at quite frankly some time back”, he was quoted as saying by the APP.

This news comes after the country entered a three-year, $7 billion aid package deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which needs to be validated by the Fund’s Executive Board to enable Pakistan to “cement macroeconomic stability and create conditions for stronger, more inclusive and resilient growth”.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2024