14 July 2005, Hong Kong – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Shearman & Sterling LLP has advised the underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, which acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, in the HK$16.8 billion (approximately US$2.2 billion) initial public offering of H shares in Hong Kong and a Rule 144A/Regulation S international offering of H shares by Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. Bank of Communications Co., nLtd. (BoCom) is the first Chinese commercial bank listed outside China.
The H shares offered by BoCom are listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong
Kong. This was the world’s second largest IPO this year to date.
Based in Shanghai, BoCom was established in 1987 as the first national
joint stock commercial bank in the PRC. Today, BoCom is China’ fifth
largest commercial bank in the PRC based on total assets as of the end
of 2004 of approximately US$138 billion. HSBC currently owns 19.9% of
the total share capital of BoCom. Other significant shareholders of
BoCom include China’s Ministry of Finance, National Council for Social
Security Fund and China SAFE Investments Ltd.
The transaction was led by the firm’s Beijing and Hong Kong capital
markets partners Matthew Bersani, Leiming Chen and Alan Seem, supported
by a team comprising associates Chris Chen, Xinmei Chen, David Fu,
Ernest Lim and Vivian Wong, and legal assistants Aaron Huang and Angela
Zhang.
