Charm offensive might add up for Agricultural Bank
Agricultural Bank of China, which hopes to raise up to US$30 billion in what could be the world's largest IPO - although that now looks unlikely - has not convinced some fund managers that biggest necessarily means best.
One money manager told Lai See that he met a group of the bank's senior executives a couple of weeks ago as they attempted to convince him to allocate pensioners' and savers' cash to the deal.
It did not go too well, however. 'One of the executives fell asleep during the meeting, another claimed Agricultural Bank was better than ICBC then collapsed into nervous laughter, and none of them were dressed exactly like international businessmen,' the fund manager said.
Hopefully Agricultural Bank, which is set to begin its formal investor roadshow on June 24, has found a good tailor, some good coffee and a better script by now.
The rural lender's so-called 'special mention loans', or those it is unsure borrowers can repay, are worth 325 billion yuan (HK$370 billion). That is almost equal to its 343 billion yuan total equity base.