What’s new: China’s top securities watchdog will speed up efforts to put new rules surrounding overseas IPOs into effect, according to an official release on Saturday.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will keep the channel of overseas listings unclogged, CSRC Chairman Yi Huiman said in a speech to a business group on the same day, according to the release.
This is a reiteration of the commission’s commitment on March 16 following a meeting of the country’s top financial policy committee that aimed to address market concerns in the wake of massive sell-offs of Chinese stocks at home and abroad.
The background: One of the concerns was whether Beijing would support Chinese companies listing in the U.S.
These fears date back to Didi Global Inc.’s $4.4 billion IPO on the New York Stock Exchange last year. Within days of its June 30 debut, the Chinese ride-hailing giant faced a devastating backlash from domestic internet watchdogs, and was required to undergo a cybersecurity review, remove its apps from app stores, and suspend new user registrations.
The turmoil led several other Chinese internet companies — including audio content platform Ximalaya Inc. and shared-bike operator Hello Inc. — to shelve their U.S. IPO plans and await clarification about overseas listings, sources previously told Caixin. It also upset large numbers of global investors in Chinese internet startups, who had been waiting to profit from the companies’ overseas IPOs.
To address market jitters, the CSRC on Dec. 24 proposed the new overseas IPO rules, aiming to establish a unified supervision system for all offshore listings by Chinese companies and provide a clear filing, vetting and approval process.
Read more Caixin Explains: What China’s Overhaul of Overseas IPO Rules Is All About
Kelsey Cheng contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com)
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