To pull it off, the bank, known colloquially as AgBank, turned to a lawyer with plenty of experience with dual listings–Davis Polk & Wardwell’s Show-Mao Chen. Four years earlier, Chen, who is based in Beijing, led a Davis Polk team that advised China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), in its initial public offering. That IPO raised $19 billion, making it the world’s largest at the time; it was also the first entity to list shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Dual listings are difficult because each exchange has different sets of regulatory requirements related to disclosure, timing, and underwriting practices. These issues can become especially complicated in a large offering.
