Asian institutional investors were the predominant buyers of Fonterra's second issue of bonds, which raised about $250 million, or 1.25 billion renminbi, for the co-operative.
The world's largest dairy exporter made a global five-year bond offer at an annual interest rate of 3.6% with the money raised to go towards developing its Chinese business.
Fonterra chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini said it was a smart way of funding the co-operative's growth and matching the funding to the assets in the particular countries it operated in.
"China is a key market for Fonterra. We have significant plans. This will allow us almost to capture and accelerate those plans," Mr Paravicini said.
"But it also shows that by being smart and leveraging the Fonterra name and the respect that investors have for the brand is actually accessing a bond market for five years, which only a few companies can access."
Fonterra was the only Australia-New Zealand company to access the renminbi bond market for five years, he said.
He declined to give exact figures but said the interest was strong, and the offering was oversubscribed.
Bancorp Treasury Services senior client advisor Peter Cavanaugh said it made sense that overseas investors would be interested in the bond issue.
"New Zealand now has a trade surplus with China, Fonterra's largest export destination is China, and China is our largest export destination for a number of other primary production commodities," Mr Cavanaugh said.
There was also substantial interest in New Zealand because of that trade and because of our high interest rates; China was looking to diversify its foreign investments and New Zealand offered that opportunity, he said.
