Lawyers remain tight-lipped in the build-up to Bank of China's 1 June debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The Hong Kong public offering tranche launched on 18 May with the global offering expected to be one of the largest initial public offerings in the world this year.

So far, the IPO is on track to be the largest ever by a Chinese firm and the world's biggest for six years. It has been predicted that with the exercise of the greenshoe the offer could raise up to US$11.4bn, which would surpass China Construction Bank (CCB) as the largest-ever equity deal from China.

But while the size and significance of the deal may be unfamiliar, the line-up of advisers should not surprise.

China's second-largest state-run lender has once more turned to regular domestic counsel Jun He Law Offices and regular US counsel Sullivan & Cromwell. Both firms completed a spate of work for the bank in 2005, including advising it on a series of strategic and equity investments, such as the US$3.1bn acquisition of a 10% stake in BOC (a finalist in the M&A category at ALB's recent China Law Awards) by an investor group that included Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch and Li Ka-Shing Foundation.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to comment on the deal at this time," Sullcrom lead partner Chun Wei told ALB.

Meanwhile, a Shearman & Sterling team - which was also involved in last year's stake acquisition - returns as US counsel to the joint arrangers. And Allen & Overy's regional corporate head Michael Liu has once again provided Hong Kong law advice to the joint arrangers (A&O and Liu took a similar role on the July 2002 listing of BOC's Hong Kong arm).

"Having advised on the Bank of China Hong Kong IPO in 2002, its share placement in 2003 and other important projects for the group, we are extremely pleased to have advised the joint global coordinators on another Bank of China transaction," said Liu.

Even the make-up of the joint arrangers has a familiar feel to it. The three investment banks handling the offering are Goldman Sachs, UBS and Bank of China International. The three have enjoyed close ties to BOC ever since they all worked on the July 2002 Hong Kong listing, while UBS did its case no harm with its US$500m investment in the Bank last year.

With an estimated US$120m or more in underwriting fees available, BOC's selection of financial advisers will have come as a blow to the likes of Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, which were also vying for the business. Merrill in particular may have hoped its role in last year's syndicate that invested US$3.1bn for a 10% stake would have strengthened its case.

BOC is one of the PRC's largest banks with 11,307 branches controlling 12% of the Chinese market for loans and 14% of its deposits. The IPO has attracted worldwide attention as Beijing continues to try and clean up its troubled banking sector. Its passage has been smoothed by the success of IPOs last year by rivals CCB and Bank of Communications, whose shares are up 51% and 106%, respectively, since their listings.