China’s securities regulator has issued new draft regulations on initial public offerings (IPOs) in a step toward a resumption of share listings.
The new rules are meant to ensure that share prices more accurately reflect market demand, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement on its Web site on Friday.
China has in effect suspended share offerings to help prevent stock prices from falling lower amid a correction that began in late 2007 after the Shanghai Stock Exchange benchmark, the Composite Index, hit an all-time high of 6,124.04.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 13.02 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,597.6 on Friday, ending the week down 1.8 percent. But the benchmark has gained more than 40 percent this year, raising confidence that the market is resilient enough to absorb new share listings.
The regulator said it would seek opinions on the draft rules until June 5 and then revise them.
A number of big state-owned companies, including the Agricultural Bank of China (中國農業銀行), the country’s main rural lender, are awaiting IPOs.
Friday’s move may clear the way for them to go ahead.
The securities commission did not give details on how it would ensure that pricing of IPOs was more in line with market demand. IPOs generally are viewed as priced strategically low to ensure a stunning advance when they begin trading.
In one major change, it ends the practice of allowing institutional investors to participate in both the institutional and retail tranches of share offerings. The aim is to allow retail investors a bigger share of IPOs by preventing institutional investors from crowding them out.
The new rules also set a limit on how many shares an investor can seek in any given IPO. IPOs will resume once the rules are final.
“We will closely monitor market feedback and manage the pace and steadily carry out related work,” the statement said.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The