New Third Board not the Nasdaq of China, says official

It would be inaccurate to compare China's New Third Board, the pilot national share transfer system for small and medium-sized enterprises, with the Nasdaq Stock Market in the United States, Yeeli Hua Zheng, chief representative of the US stock exchange in China, said on Monday.

The National Equities Exchange and Quotations, better known as the New Third Board in China, is a unique and innovative mechanism of the capital market and no bourses in the world can be compared to it, Zheng said at a news conference in Beijing.

The response from Nasdaq's China chief was intended to clarify market confusion about the Chinese board, as it has been increasingly referred to as the Chinese version of Nasdaq by some press and market observers.

Zheng said that the listing standards and the fundraising mechanisms of the two bourses are totally different.

"Comparing the New Third Board with Nasdaq would be ignoring the innovative characteristics of the pilot board in China," she said.

The comparison to Nasdaq is also inaccurate as Nasdaq is a premier exchange in the US with one of the world's highest listing standards, she said.

The New Third Board in China attracted a considerable amount of attention recently as the board has seen volatile trading, raising fears of irrational speculation and illegal market practices.

Since it was launched in 2012, the board has developed into an open fundraising platform for small unlisted companies in China as part of the country's effort to develop a multi-layered capital market.

Shares of more than 2,000 companies are traded on the board through agreement or market making with total capitalization exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan ($190 billion).

While acknowledging that the Chinese IPO pipeline for Nasdaq this year is not as long as in 2014, Zheng is upbeat about the prospects for new listings this year. She said that IPOs from China will continue to be driven by the technology, media and telecom sectors.