When they began examining the books of Agricultural Bank of China in 2005 for a planned initial public offering, auditors privately predicted it would take a long time before the bank would be in suitable shape to sell shares to the public.
Five years and a $19bn government bail-out later and ABC has finally invited 21 international and Chinese banks to submit underwriting proposals for a simultaneous Shanghai and Hong Kong IPO that could raise as much as Rmb200bn ($29.3bn).
That would make it the world's largest IPO, a prize that has persuaded the top executives of many of the world's biggest investment banks to fly to Beijing to compete in what Chinese bankers refer to as a “bake-off”.
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