| April 7-8: pitching "You couldn’t win a spot on this deal at those pitch meetings," says a banker who was in them, "but we got the feeling you could certainly lose one." April 9-13: waiting "My sense is that who was on that deal changed 10 times in three days," says one of the winners. April 14: the winners announced On April 14 ABC announced which banks would be helping it to complete its transformation into a company with publicly traded shares. April 16: the kick-off meeting For those who won a slot on the deal there was no time for self-congratulation. April 16- May 4: claustrophobic preparations With nine external bookrunners working on the deal, appointing each a separate workspace within the bank proved impossible. May 4-June 20: anchors, and tense bankers The banks competed fiercely for ABC’s approval. June 20-July 1: tough questions on the road "I recall one investor looking at chairman Xiang and saying: ‘Look I trust you, but this bank has half a million staff. How do you know one of them is not going to cause a scandal?’" July 1-6: the mood darkens The H-share prospectus for the IPO of Agricultural Bank of China is an imposing 771-page document. |