Wal-Mart looking to sell renminbi bonds - Bloomberg

March 18 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is mulling selling renminbi bonds in Hong Kong, the world's largest retailer's Asia Chief Executive Scott Price told Bloomberg.

The retailer is looking at options and such a move would underscore the company's commitment to support local communities and China's financial system, Price told the agency in an interview.

Wal-Mart could be the first foreign non-financial company to issue renminbi (yuan) debt in Hong Kong, according to the agency.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has announced measures that broaden the kind of renminbi business that is possible to do in Hong Kong, according to IFR Asia, a Thomson Reuters publication.

Non-Chinese non-financial entities are now allowed to issue renminbi bonds and tap renminbi loans from domestic banks in Hong Kong so long as the funds raised do not flow back to the mainland and provided proceeds do not fund investments in shares, IFR said in its Feb. 20, 2010 issue.

So far, RMB 38 billion ($5.43 billion) of renminbi bonds have been issued in Hong Kong, including transactions from the PRC's Ministry of Finance and from locally incorporated foreign banks, Bank of East Asia (0023.HK) and HSBC (0005.HK)(HSBA.L), IFR said. As the U.S. economy improves, more of the shoppers who flocked to Wal-Mart to save money during the recession are moving back to the stores they frequented before, according to a survey by America's Research Group. [ID:nN12176138]

Wal-Mart could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)