China to promote regulation for registration-based system of ChiNext

BEIJING - China planned to optimize the issuance and underwriting of initial public offerings (IPOs) under the reform of the registration-based IPO system in ChiNext, the country's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, according to the country's top securities regulator.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) recently started to solicit public opinion on a special regulation, expecting to regulate IPO activities in the registration system of ChiNext, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors and public interests.

With the garnered experience from the previous pilot at sci-tech innovation board, the regulation specified the participants in enquiry and relax the strategic placement threshold to enhance inclusiveness and flexibility, according to the regulation.

Besides, the regulation included targeted measures in terms of risk control and protection for small and medium investors and added backup systems in case of major risks.

To boost the efficiency of issuance, the regulation retained the current IPO pricing mechanism, allowing IPOs of less than 20 million shares and with no share publicly offered by shareholders to set prices directly.

The CRSC pledged promotion of IPO issuance and underwriting system on the sci-tech innovation board, so as to improve cooperation and integration with different boards.

China decided in late April to pilot the registration IPO system at ChiNext to replace its approval-based one in a bid to better cultivate new industry start-ups and bolster the real economy.