Hong Kong may reap bonanza as China expedites approvals for offshore IPOs
- Market watchdog’s second-in-command tells Lujiazui Forum that the pace of approvals has already picked up, but is ‘still not sufficient’
China’s market regulator is working to further expedite approvals for offshore initial public offerings (IPOs), seeking to increase the size of a wave of potential Hong Kong listings that has already started to build.
“We need to accelerate the pace further because there are still many companies in the queue,” Fang Xinghai, currently vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on Wednesday.
“Although our current speed is somewhat faster than before, it is still not sufficient as this is a relatively new endeavour.”
The scrum of companies waiting to list reflects the dynamism and scale of Chinese companies, he said. They absolutely aim to grow bigger and better, and we should strongly support that.”
Chinese companies have been actively seeking overseas listings since the implementation of the overseas application system on March 31 last year. As of Tuesday, 158 companies have obtained approvals for overseas listings, Fang said. Among these, 85 are for Hong Kong offerings and 73 are for the United States.
The regulator’s support is welcome as it will accelerate the listing process and allow “attractive and very compelling” companies to get out of the pipeline and onto the board, Kevin Sneader, president of Goldman Sachs Asia-Pacific, said at the forum.
