Stocks News
- Regulators may limit share listings in HK
Date: 17-Apr-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
MAINLAND regulators will limit the number of mainland companies listing their shares solely in Hong Kong in a bid to encourage enterprises to join bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen, a report said yesterday.
The government has introduced an unofficial policy allowing mainland companies to list in Hong Kong only if they seek more than US$1 billion or plan a simultaneous listing on the mainland, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed investment bankers and regulatory sources.
The report said the policy is designed to force a large majority of listing candidates to become A shares by joining the Shanghai or Shenzhen bourses instead of Hong Kong.
Policymakers believe that increasing the numbers of listed A-share companies will help mop up excess liquidity and prevent a stock market bubble on the mainland, it said.
They are also concerned that mainland investors cannot benefit from the growth of some of the mainland's fastest-growing companies if they are allowed to list solely in Hong Kong.
Hundreds of mainland companies have listed their shares in Hong Kong in recent years amid a long slump in the mainland markets.
But a resurgence in mainland exchanges, fueled by intense investor demand, has prompted a re-think in the government over which companies to allow to list as H shares in Hong Kong.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission, the mainland's securities regulator, declined to comment but one person close to the regulator was quoted as saying: 'It is not publicly announced policy, but we are certainly encouraging mainland companies to list on the domestic market.'
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