Andrew Williams

Kind of PR stuff, but just as a record...

"On July 25 2002, Bank of China Hong Kong successfully completed its US$2.5 billion IPO - the first international equity offering by an affiliate of a PRC bank.

Traditionally the state bank specializing in foreign exchange transactions, Bank of China has always had an international orientation, with an extensive network of subsidiaries, branches and agencies around the world and the most direct knowledge among Chinese state-owned banks of evolving international banking practices.

......

Of a long list of firsts, perhaps the most significant is that this was the first international IPO out of the Chinese banking sector. It was both a step in the banking sector's reforms and an instrument to further such reforms. The enthusiastic market reception that greeted Bank of China Hong Kong can be seen as an endorsement of the reform efforts and measures that produced this new bank, although not to be neglected is the special place that this bank inhabits in the business community and in the hearts and minds of Hong Kong." more