China has unveiled a three-stage plan to gradually resume domestic stock
sales to bolster its capital market with more good-quality listings while
avoiding a glut of unwanted shares.
Under the arrangement, listed companies will first be permitted to place
equities with existing stock holders pending lock-up periods or issue stock
warrants to investors, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a
Website statement late Sunday.
On the second stage, public firms, which finished their non-tradable share
reforms more than half a year ago, can float additional stocks to public
investors on domestic markets, the statement said.
Given the process goes smoothly, regulators will finally resume initial
public offerings of "good quality" companies "at a proper time," according to
the statement.
Chinese authorities halted all sales of stocks and bonds last May as the
country works to convert US$250 billion in non-tradable state-owned shares into
free-floating entities at all mainland listed firms.
So far, companies representing about 60 percent of combined market value in
Shanghai and Shenzhen have completed their stock overhauls.
"As the reform has been proceeding smoothly, it's now time to consider
restarting share sales," the regulator said in the statement, But "when any
issuance will go must depend on market conditions and we should prevent a stock
flood from casting a psychologically negative impact on investors."
China's stock markets, plunging to eight-year lows last year, have picked up
in the past several months as the stock-market watchdog prompted more
institutional participation, stepped up oversight of corporate management and
paced up development of derivatives.
Under revised listing guidelines also issued Sunday, regulators prohibited
public companies from selling additional shares at a discount to market prices,
a move previously adopted to woo investors.
Selling stocks at prices higher than market levels will make it hard for
poorly-performing companies to raise funds and protect minority stock holders'
interest, analysts said.
Regulators also promised to make pricing mechanism more market-oriented and
urged listed firms to boost dividend payouts to shareholders, according to the
guidelines.
Companies, which have gained nod from the regulator to issue stocks, can
decide when to proceed themselves within the following six months, instead of
being assigned an issuance date by the watchdog, the guideline
said.
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