China A-share IPOs to Resume by June 25

飞雪寒冰

A-share initial public offerings, suspended since September, are expected to resume by June 25, a person familiar with the matter told Caijing.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission will hold a meeting on June 18 to set detailed plans for resuming IPOs, the person said.

Following the meeting, the first approved IPO prospectuses may be announced on June 19 at the earliest, the person added.

The first listing is likely to be on the small- and medium-size enterprise board.

Caijing has learned that the CSRC requested four brokers, who all are experienced in IPO underwriting, to submit detailed blueprints of their clients' listing plans prior to a decision on which client would get the official approval to list first. The four are Ping An Securities Co., China Merchants Securities Co., Guosen Securities Co., and United Securities Co.

"The regulator will determine the first company to be listed and will consider company size, underwriter experience, as well as the date the candidate passed a CSRC panel review," a CSRC official told Caijing.

飞雪寒冰

The official Xinhua news agency earlier reported that 32 companies had already passed a CSRC panel review before IPOs were suspended and are awaiting final approval to go public.

It said the companies plan to issue a combined 14.4 billion shares, including China State Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd. with the largest offering of 12 billion shares.

On June 12, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.9 percent, the biggest single-day fall in more than a month, after market rumors that CSCEC will be the company to kick off the new round of IPOs.

A brokerage official told Caijing that he views Sichuan Expressway Co. (HK 0107) as the best candidate for first listing as the company has H shares that can be used as a pricing benchmark. The official is not with the four brokers selected by the CSRC and Sichuan Expressway is not a client.

Sichuan Expressway, which plans to issue up to 500 million A shares, is also ideal because of its moderate offering size, the official added.