Shearman & Sterling's Hong Kong and Beijing offices advised the underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, in the HK$16.8 billion (approximately US$2.2 billion) initial public offering of H shares listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and Rule 144A/Regulation S international offering of H shares, of Bank of Communications Co., Ltd. (BoCom).  BoCom is the first Chinese commercial bank to be listed outside of China.

Based in Shanghai, BoCom was re-established in 1987 as the first national joint stock commercial bank in the PRC. Today, BoCom is China's fifth largest commercial bank in the PRC (based on total assets as of the end of 2004 of approximately US$138 billion). HSBC currently owns 19.9% of the total share capital of BoCom. Other significant shareholders of BoCom include China's Ministry of Finance, National Council for Social Security Fund and China SAFE Investments Ltd.