China's IPO cleanup makes encouraging debut

Wenzhou Kangning Hospital

01/02/2018 01:46

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions 
expressed are her own.) 
    By Robyn Mak 
    HONG KONG, Feb 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Beijing 
regulators just rejected six new-listing applications in a 
single day, including one from Hong Kong-traded psychiatric 
hospital chain Wenzhou Kangning. Enforcing tougher standards 
could lead to broader reforms. The risk is empowering entrenched 
bureaucrats even more. 
        
    Full view will be published shortly. 
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/mak_robyn 
    
    
    CONTEXT NEWS 
    - The China Securities Regulatory Commission on Jan. 23 
rejected six applications for initial public offerings and 
approved one. This set a new record for simultaneous denials, 
according to IFR. 
    - The agency's issuance-examination committee is responsible 
for reviewing IPOs, follow-on offerings, and mergers and 
acquisitions. Its entire committee was replaced with new members 
in September 2017. 
    - Since Jan. 1, the committee has approved 14 applications 
out of 36 reviewed, Reuters reported on Jan. 25. 
    - Separately, the CSRC in December published new guidelines 
for companies applying for new listings to "standardise the 
listing process", as well as to "have clear and stable market 
expectations". 
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can 
click on  MAK/    
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    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
CSRC applications review (Chinese)    http://www.csrc.gov.cn/pub/zjhpublic/G00306202/201801/t20180124_333092.htm 
IFR: CSRC rejects six IPO applications      urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1PJ1LL 
China aims to make IPO application process more transparent     
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1O818C 
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> 
 (Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb and Sharon Lam) 
 ((robyn.mak@thomsonreuters.com;)(Reuters Messaging: 
robyn.mak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: CHINA IPOS/BREAKINGVIEWS