Hong Kong Monetary Authority ceases to be Airport Authority's Arranger

(HONG KONG, 4 June 2001) - The Hong Kong Monetary Authoirty (HKMA), the Airport Authority (AA), the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporaton Limited, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation and MTR Corporation Limited announced today that the HKMA will from 1 September cease to be the Arranger for the respective Note Issuance Programme of the four corporations. Accordingly, AA will no longer issue new Notes under its Note Issuance Programme (NIP) with effect from that date.

AA Finance Director Mr Raymond Lai said cessation of the NIP is expected to have minimal impact on the AA.

"The Authority has always maintained a very diversified source of funding. This includes but not limited to syndication loans, bank bilaterals, and debt capital market issues. The NIP is only one of its many funding sources," Mr Lai said.

AA's strong credit quality was reaffirmed by its highly successful HK$2.5 billion Floating Rate Notes issue in March this year which set a new benchmark for other corporate borrowers in Hong Kong because of its tight pricing. With the "AA-" rating for local currency borrowing and "A+" rating for foreign currency borrowing from Standard & Poors, AA enjoys the same credit ratings as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and is among the highest-rated corporations in Hong Kong.

Ref. PR-569