The London Stock Exchange held a ceremony on Friday to mark the issuance of RMB-denominated bonds before the market opened.

Following in the footsteps of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank, the London branch of the Bank of China issued a 2.5 billion yuan (roughly 250 million pounds) bond two weeks ago - the largest ever RMB issuance in the UK.

"We hope the issuance of bonds can bring more dynamics to the offshore RMB business in London and it is a great start for 2014," said Fang Wenjian, CEO of London branch of the Bank of China.

The funds raised from the deal will be retained in London to support the development of the London offshore RMB market as well as UK-China bilateral trade and investment.

The Bank of China is the global coordinator while HSBC, UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch have been appointed as main underwriters for the bonds.

"The fact that this bond has been raised so quickly shows there is a real appetite in London to invest in the RMB and that really is very very important. We are very excited, because London is already the major RMB market outside greater China and we want to keep it moving like this, keep moving forward. And above all we want to send signals back to China that we welcome Chinese investment here, and we want to send signals out to the rest of Europe that you should invest here in Chinese bonds and Chinese businesses," said Edward Lister, Deputy Mayor of London for policy and planning.

来源：央视英文频道 2014-01-17