Bid for IPO of China's first tea company fails

China's first tea company's request for an initial public offering failed, as the top securities regulator ended its review of the application last week.

Anxi Tieguanyin Group and three other companies were the first businesses to receive the bad news, after the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced Jan 9 that it would take a hard look at all IPO applicants.

Anxi Tieguanyin Group, based in Anxi county, East China's Fujian province, is a leading producer of tieguanyin tea, a premium variety of Chinese oolong tea. It is believed to have originated in the 19th century in Anxi.

A pre-disclosure of the group's prospectus showed the company planned to offer 22.9 million shares, and raise 157 million yuan ($25.2 million) in capital. But questions about the group’s extraordinary growth and possible hidden related party transactions followed the pre-disclosure.

The CSRC had said earlier that it would step up its review of the 2012 annual financial reports of companies seeking IPOs, focusing on risk disclosure and operational performance evaluations. Some Chinese media called this series of examinations "the most stringent" in history.