HONG KONG, March 28 (Reuters) - Consumer goods giant Unilever Plc became the first European company to tap the growing offshore yuan market by raising $46 million, amid signs of a pickup in issuance activity after a slow start to the year.
The maker of Knorr soups and Dove soap joins a growing list of issuers that includes casino operators and Chinese state-run banks as Beijing seeks to increase use of the Chinese currency in international trade.
The deal was priced at 1.15 percent, 10 basis points cheaper than an initial guidance of 1.25 percent, and the multinational raised 300 million yuan bankers familiar with the matter said.
Yuan-denominated debt, or "dim sum" bonds as they are known, have been snapped up by hungry investors who are betting on further yuan gains, driving yields steadily lower in this market since its launch last July.
U.S. fast food group McDonald's Corp was the first foreign company to sell bonds at 3 percent last August followed by Caterpillar Inc , which raised 1 billion yuan at 2 percent.
In another sign that activity in the dim sum bond market is heating up, Singamas Container Holdings Ltd has mandated three banks for an offshore yuan bond, although size and tenor has not been decided yet.
New yuan bond sales could triple to 120 billion yuan this year as a big pipeline of issuers including big state-run banks await final approval from the mainland Chinese authorities, RBS analysts said last week.
So far this year, yuan bond sales have been at a low 14 billion yuan because of geopolitical developments and general market uncertainty. Yuan bond issues in Hong Kong last year totalled about 40 billion yuan, with the majority in the second half of the year.
Unilever and its dim Sum bond were rated "A1" by Moody's and "A+" by S&P. The settlement date is March 31.
Deutsche Bank AG