CSRC releases findings of IPO inspection

The China Securities Regulatory Commission has finalized a special inspection that began at the end of 2012 of the financial reports of companies that applied for initial public offerings, with more than 30 percent of those companies asking to cancel their IPO applications during the inspection period, a CSRC spokesman said on Friday.

The regulator said that 622 companies submitted self-inspection reports and that 268 companies withdrew their IPO applications.

During on-site inspections, sponsor institutions were required to provide original financial documents, and even flight tickets, to prove they had carried out the proper level of due diligence, and to ensure the accuracy of financial details.

Market participants had worried that the number of IPO candidates was too large, so the inspection was a move to improve the situation.

China's IPO market has been frozen since October last year. Early this year there was a backlog of nearly 900 applications for IPOs.

The commission's spokesman said earlier that they encourage all the companies that meet the requirements to go public, and that the financial inspection was based on current laws to improve the quality of information disclosure.

"As economic conditions at home and abroad have been complex and volatile over recent years, companies are experiencing fluctuations in their operations," the spokesman said. "Making accurate disclosures and objective statements on such fluctuations has become important."

The commission said they will further improve regulation on equity issuing, including further detailing IPO disclosure rules and requirements, setting up long-term regulation and inspection mechanisms, having more strict requirements on sponsors and boosting inspection of illegal behavior. "There's no new progress on the IPO restart," the spokesman said.

The CSRC has recently outlined a draft plan to reform IPO procedures in a move that could clear the way for long-stalled offerings. The first round of public consulting about the issue was made between June 7 and June 21.

The final round is expected to happen this month, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The regulator's new plan calls for the release of IPO-related documents as soon as the CSRC receives applications for an offering. The objective is to increase accuracy and the timely disclosure of information.

Meanwhile, the sponsors of IPO applicants will have their sponsorship qualifications suspended - barring them from recommending other companies to issue stock - if any firm they sponsor posts a 50 percent decline in profits or record losses in the first year after going public.