Deals
China Has Too Many Investment Bankers. That Means Fees of Just 0.001%
- Price war between firms helped cut underwriting fees in half
- Analyst says 20 full service firms ‘more than enough’
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Competition among Chinese investment banks has become so intense that five firms recently agreed to split a 0.001 percent fee for arranging a private share placement. That compares with the more than 5 percent that’s usual for follow-on stock offerings on Wall Street, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It’s the latest example of a price war in China that helped cut average equity underwriting fees in half last year and prompted a trade group to call for measures to prevent “vicious competition.”