SIX placed the first senior unsecured digital CHF bond with a total volume of CHF150 million ($161.8mn) and maturity in 2026 via its holding company SIX Group. It is the world’s first bond issuance with a pure digital part in a fully regulated environment. The offering was oversubscribed several times and attracted strong interest from a very broad institutional investor base in Switzerland.
The bond comprises two exchangeable parts. The digital part (Part A) of the bond will be listed and traded on SDX (Six Digital Exchange) Trading and centrally held by SIX Digital Exchange. The traditional part (Part B) of the bond will be listed and traded on SIX Swiss Exchange and centrally held by SIX SIS, the national central securities depository of the Swiss financial market. This approach ensures the link between the digital and traditional worlds.
The digital part (Part A) of the bond accounts for CHF100 million of the total issue volume. CHF50 million was allocated to the traditional part of the bond (Part B). The coupon amounts to 0.125% per year, corresponding to a yield to maturity of 0.125%. Unless the bonds are repaid prematurely or acquired and canceled, they will be repaid at their nominal value on the due date. The company will use the net proceeds of the bond placed for general financing purposes of SIX.
Thomas Zeeb, global head of Exchanges at SIX, said in a statement: “The first issue of a tokenized bond on the SIX Digital Exchange as well as its listing and placement in the market proves that the forward-looking distributed ledger technology (DLT) also works very well in the highly regulated capital market. This transaction marks the beginning of a new era.