Information Asymmetry and Corporate Bond Issuance Premium: Evidence from the KUNGFU bonds

Kungfu bonds are bonds denominated in dollars issued by mainland companies in overseas markets. In the past ten years, the issuance of Chinese dollar bonds has been in full swing. The Kungfu bond market is booming with China's economic development and the deepening of the capital market. Since 2019, the regulatory policies for the domestic real estate industry have gradually become stricter. Developers led by Evergrande and Country Garden have extremely tight cash flow, and their domestic and overseas financing channels are greatly restricted. In addition, due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, the risk exposure of Chinese-funded US dollar bonds and real estate debts has intensified. Due to the wave of defaults induced by the forced deleveraging of domestic regulators, overseas credit bonds with poor credit quality have been sold by investors. This paper looks into the interest rate level of Kungfu bonds as the research object, and examines the information asymmetry as the research entry point to conduct an in-depth quantitative study of the additional costs that mainland real estate companies need to pay for new bonds issued in the international market, and what factors may exacerbate or alleviate information asymmetry.This study found that Mainland real estate companies need to pay an additional 1.2238% interest rate difference on average when issuing bonds in Hong Kong for the first time. In addition, Mainland real estate companies that have issued bonds in the international market pay a lower credit premium on average, which means that issuing bonds in the international market can significantly enhance the company's reputation and alleviate information asymmetry among institutional investors, thereby reducing financing costs. To sum up, this paper analyzes in depth the pricing problem of Chinese dollar bonds issued in the international market through the method of quantitative regression, enriches the related research on bond issuance pricing, and provides information necessary for practitioners to make investment decisions and for listed companies to make financing arrangements. It provides valuable suggestions, which may be applied to other industries.