Caterpillar said yesterday it sold a Chinese yuan 1bn (€$113m) two-year bond issue for its financial arm in Hong Kong, the first overseas industrial group to tap the nascent yuan market.

The 2% coupon undercut the 3% achieved in a smaller issue in August by McDonald's, which became the first overseas non-financial group to tap the yuan bond market since Chinese authorities eased rules earlier this year as part of a broader effort to make the currency a global standard.