Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises on Bank of China's US$6.5 billion offering of additional tier 1 preference shares Ground breaking issue is world's biggest of contingent convertible capital

Clifford Chance has advised the lead managers and the fiscal agent on Bank of China Limited's US$6.5 billion (RMB39.94 billion) offering of Basel III-compliant additional tier 1 preference shares. The lead managers were BOCI, BNP Paribas, China Merchants Securities, CITIC Securities, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered Bank. The fiscal agent was The Bank of New York Mellon, London Branch. This is the first offshore additional tier 1 capital issue from a Chinese bank.

Partner Fang Liu said, "We were delighted to assist on this landmark offering which represents many breakthroughs, including the world's biggest contingent convertible capital issue, the largest fixed-income offering out of Asia and the first-ever offshore additional tier 1 regulatory capital issue out of China."

Fang and consultant Angela Chan co-led the team advising the managers and were supported by partner Connie Heng and associates Li Lin, Yue Song, Liao Yufei and Liu Gehuan. Partner Matt Fairclough led on advising the fiscal agent with assistance from senior associate James Booth.