China’s first euro-denominated government bond in 15 years has been gobbled up by yield-hungry investors including European pension funds, feeding expectations of further deals.

Beijing’s Ministry of Finance sold a trio of bonds on Tuesday, raising a total of €4bn. There were close to €20bn of orders from investors, according to figures shared with the FT. The issuance will set a new price benchmark after the maturity of the last euro-denominated sovereign bond, which was issued in 2004.

For big investors, the Chinese-issued, euro-denominated bonds provided an opportunity to diversify and grab higher yields than those available in Europe. The bonds had maturities of seven, 12 and 20 years, with yields of 0.197 per cent, 0.618 per cent and 1.078 per cent, respectively. By contrast, a seven-year German Bund yields minus 0.5 per cent.