Teniz Capital Investment Banking JSC (KASE:TCIB) has acted as local manager in the Republic of Kazakhstan's second sovereign Panda bond issuance, completed today by the Kazakh Ministry of Finance on China's onshore bond market for a total of RMB 6.6 billion (about $985 million). Panda bonds are renminbi-denominated securities issued by non-Chinese entities on China's domestic interbank market, giving foreign borrowers direct access to the country's onshore investor base.

The bonds were placed in two tranches: a three-year tranche of RMB 5 billion (about $745 million) priced at 1.82%, and a five-year tranche of RMB 1.6 billion (about $240 million) priced at 1.95%.

China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) acted as lead manager, while China Construction Bank Limited (CCB), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), The Export-Import Bank of China and Bank of China Limited (BOC) served as joint lead managers. On the Kazakh side, Teniz Capital Investment Banking acted as the sole local manager.

The mandate follows Teniz Capital's role as local underwriter on Kazakhstan's debut sovereign Panda bond, a three-year RMB 3.4 billion (about $505 million) note priced at 1.9% and completed on 26 May 2026. The new three-year tranche priced eight basis points tighter than the debut issuance, meaning Kazakhstan borrowed at a lower cost on its return to the market.

The transaction follows an upgrade of Kazakhstan's sovereign credit rating by S&P Global Ratings from "BBB-" to "BBB" with a stable outlook. Kazakhstan's public debt stands at 20.9% of GDP, against a 32% ceiling under its fiscal rules, with external public debt at 4.5% of GDP.

"We congratulate the Ministry of Finance on the successful completion of this transaction. Kazakhstan has clearly become the financial hub of Central Asia and the reference issuer of the region: the first sovereign in Central Asia to enter China's onshore market and now the first to return, at a tighter price. Each issuance deepens the corridor between Central Asian borrowers and the largest pool of capital in Asia, and we expect Kazakh quasi-sovereign and corporate issuers to follow," said Talgat Salikhov, Chairman of the Management Board of Teniz Capital Investment Banking.

Teniz Capital has operated in Kazakhstan's securities market since 1997 and employs more than 100 professionals across offices in Almaty, the Astana International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi. The firm has managed securities placements worth more than 510 billion tenge (about $1.1 billion), with recent mandates from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Finance, sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, national railway KTZ, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank and Bank RBK. In 2025, the firm acquired a 49% stake in Tabys, a retail investment fintech of the Astana International Exchange. Whether Kazakh quasi-sovereign and corporate issuers follow into the Panda market, as Salikhov expects, is a development market participants can watch in coming issuances.