Companies prepare to replace Citigroup

Now that the China Construction Bank seems to be ready to dismiss Citigroup as an advisor and possible underwriter of CCB’s planned initial public offering, other institutions appear to be getting ready to place themselves in position to replace Citigroup.

In addition to Bank of America, which has already made an offer to purchase a share of CCB worth over $1 billion after Citigroup’s failure to do so, several international investment groups are rumored to have met over the weekend to make plans to press their bids to replace Citigroup.

The other current underwriters for the IPO, Morgan Stanley, and its partner, China International Capital Corp., may well try to persuade CCB not to replace Citigroup as they try to position themselves to keep more of the banking fees generated by the deal for themselves. Those fees could well total more than $175 million.

All of this activity has come even though CCB has not made any official moves toward excluding Citigroup from the IPO arrangements.

Story link: Companies prepare to replace Citigroup