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Regulator vetting suitors as GEB ball finally starts rolling

By Zhang Ran (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-12 08:20

Over 149 companies intend to raise 33.6 billion yuan via public floats. [CFP]

The market regulator is vetting applications from 149 companies that intend to raise a combined 33.6 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) via initial public offerings (IPOs) on the country's NASDAQ-like Growth Enterprise Board (GEB), officials from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on Friday.

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Of the 149 companies, nearly 40 are ready to enter the primary IPO review procedures, which could start as early as next week, said CSRC officials.

The regulator said the GEB could now be launched by early October to fund high-growth start-ups. The regulator started receiving IPO applications for the GEB on July 26 and set up an IPO review committee in the middle of August.

CSRC officials said 12 applicants are foreign joint ventures with overseas shareholding of around 10 percent. The regulator did not specify how many foreign venture capitalists are investing in the 149 start-up companies.

The 149 companies are expected to raise 33.6 billion yuan by issuing 3.63 billion new shares. The maximum and minimum amount to be raised by a single company is 825 million yuan and 85 million, according to CSRC figures. The average amount being raised by the prospective GEB suitors is around 227 million yuan.

The new market is expected to cater to the financing needs of companies in innovative industries such as renewable energy, biomedicine, electronic information and environmental protection.

Nearly 37 percent of the applicants are from the telecommunication industry, while 10 percent are from biomedicine and 12 percent from new materials. Another 13 percent of the applicants come from the manufacturing sector. Nearly 70 percent of companies on the existing Shenzhen-based small- and medium-sized enterprises board are from the manufacturing sector.

"For GEB applicants, the regulator may have less requirements with regard to their current earnings compared with companies from the main board. However, it has stricter requirements for realizing high speed growth," said a CSRC official who declined to be named.