Stocks News
- CITIC Securities share issue plan wins nod
Date: 16-Aug-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE China Securities Regulatory Commission said yesterday it has approved a proposal by CITIC Securities Co. for a public share offering that could raise around 27 billion yuan (US$3.56 billion).
China's biggest listed brokerage said in early June it planned to issue up to 350 million new A shares, accounting for as much as 11 percent of its expanded share capital, to help boost its capital and expand its business.
The shares would be sold at no less than their average market price over the 20 days before the release of the prospectus, and no less than their average price on the previous day.
Shares of CITIC Securities closed at 81.06 yuan yesterday. The stock has gained nearly 50 percent over the past month and about 560 percent over the past year as the firm's earnings jump on soaring turnover in the domestic stock market.
CITIC Securities said yesterday its net profit surged 442 percent year on year to 4.21 billion yuan in the first six months of 2007.
Shareholders have approved the planned new share offer. Typically, share offers take place within a few weeks after receiving regulatory approval.
China's benchmark CSI 300 Index has more than doubled this year, fueling US$21 billion in share sales by the nation's companies. The market value of CITIC Securities has surpassed that of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. as investors bet the Chinese rally still has some way to go.
CITIC's brokerage commissions jumped sixfold to 6.6 billion yuan in the first half.
Chinese individuals are putting more of their US$2.2 trillion of savings into the stock market to beat inflation. Consumer prices rose 5.6 percent in July, the biggest gain in more than a decade, while benchmark one-year deposit rates are at 3.3 percent.
Trading of yuan-denominated shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange averaged 3.7 billion yuan a day this year, up from last year's 1.7 billion yuan average.
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