One of the key reasons ascribed to Bank of China's successful IPO was the decision to place a percentage of the international equity offering with Japanese retail investors through a POWL public offer without listing. By widening its potential investor base, Bank of China was able to play off different investor bases to build momentum and leverage up the pricing it could achieve.
As a result, 12% of its $2.47 billion IPO was placed in Japan after 80,000 domestic investors placed orders for $2.9 billion via POWL lead manager Nomura. Putting this figure in context, there was one Japanese retail investor for every four domestic retail investors from Bank of China's home market, Hong...
