ANY DISCUSSION OF 2010’s deals of the year in Asia must be shaped by the two big initial public offerings that affected the rest of the year’s equity deals around them. The IPOs of AIA, the Asian business of recovering US insurer AIG, and of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) both raised more than $20 billion in carefully managed deals involving more than 10 banks in each case. Both deals sat ominously in the calendar for the year, daring other issuers to plan deals around the same time and commanding the attention of investors, potential bookrunners, traders and the financial media worldwide. Neither looked like being a certain success from the outset. Of the two, ABC seemed a tougher proposition since the business being sold was a vast, awkwardly named Chinese bank with a reputation as the weakest of China’s big four lenders and a loan book that was at...
