Merrill Lynch has been appointed joint bookrunner with Goldman Sachs and Citic Securities on the initial public offering of Bank of Beijing, after winning an underwriting mandate last week on China Communications Constructions' $2bn (€1.5bn) Hong Kong listing.

The Bank of Beijing float, which is expected to raise between $750m and $1bn, will be Merrill's second Chinese bookrunner mandate after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's record $21.1bn dual listing in September.