Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the nation's largest lender, added Deutsche Bank to its list of book-runners for its record-breaking initial public offering of up to US$15 billion in Hong Kong.
ICBC had also hired Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley's mainland joint venture China International Capital Corp, Credit Suisse and ICEA, its own Hong Kong investment banking unit, as joint book-runners, a bank statement said yesterday, confirming an earlier South China Morning Post report.
Morgan Stanley, which with Citigroup failed to clinch an invitation to ICBC's beauty parade last month, also landed an as yet unknown role to help arrange the Hong Kong initial public offering.
By excluding former frontrunner Goldman Sachs, the line-up could placate concerns of conflict of interest and confidentiality risks involving the United States investment bank, which has agreed to take a stake in ICBC and also has mandates to underwrite the listing of two other banks.
ICBC is likely to sell 10 per cent of its enlarged capital to the public as early as October in a deal that could eclipse last year's US$9.2 billion offering by China Construction Bank Corp as the largest offer by a Chinese company.
The lender last month invited nine investment banks, including JP Morgan and HSBC, to bid for the mandates which could earn them US$450 million in fees.