Goldman Sachs may supplant Morgan Stanley as China's top stock underwriter this year when Industrial & Commercial Bank of China raises as much as $12 billion (R74 billion) in the country's biggest initial public offering (IPO).
Goldman is the frontrunner to win the assignment two months after it led a group that is investing about $3.78 billion in Industrial & Commercial, according to bankers familiar with the matter.
Industrial & Commercial left Morgan Stanley out of the bidding for what might be the world's biggest IPO in seven years, bankers said.
Morgan Stanley was China's top equity underwriter in 2005, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Goldman, which ranked fourth, is also managing an $8 billion IPO for Bank of China, the country's second-biggest bank after Industrial & Commercial. - Bloomberg, Hong Kong