LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - HSBC and the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) will provide a combined $300 million in
financing to help Asia's supply chains boost manufacturing
capacity for COVID-19 vaccines, the two lenders said on Friday.
The initiative builds on a risk-sharing scheme the banks
launched in July to help to fund suppliers of personal
protective equipment (PPE) as they and vaccine makers race to
meet global demand that outstrips supply.
By leaning on the ADB's sovereign-level credit rating,
private sector lenders such as HSBC can lend more easily to
companies in the complex chain of vaccine supply production,
HSBC said.
"Right now demand for vaccines far outstrips supply and one
of the challenges is that supply and distribution networks have
to be formed, which requires a lot of liquidity," said Surath
Sengupta, global head of financial institutions at HSBC.
The lenders will offer funds through trade loans and invoice
financing among other tools, Sengupta said, as countries across
Asia try to shorten the usual multi-year time scale needed to
deploy large-scale inoculation programmes.
Vaccination levels in Asian countries have varied widely as
governments deal with limited supplies, rapidly rising demand
and political jockeying to secure doses.
Leaders of the United States, India, Australia and Japan
agreed to pool financing, manufacturing and distribution
capacity to send 1 billion coronavirus vaccines across Asia by
the end of 2022, India's foreign secretary said in March.
(Reporting by Lawrence White
Editing by David Goodman)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)
