IPO sponsorship business has become a "high-risk zone" for securities firms' violations
Our reporter Chang Xiaoyu
The IPO sponsorship business is still a "high-risk area" for securities firms' violations.
As of December 30, a reporter from the "Securities Daily" combed through the 79 regulatory measures announced on the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission during the year and noticed that 32 "tickets" pointed to violations of the IPO sponsorship business of investment banks, accounting for 41%.
On the evening of December 29, the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s official website "continuously issued" 9 regulatory measures, all of which were related to violations of investment bank IPO sponsorship business, involving 3 brokerage firms and 16 sponsor representatives.
Specifically, the 32 "tickets" mentioned above mainly involve inadequate verification, unauthorized simplification of disclosure content, influence on the issuer's scientific innovation attribute judgment, and commercial bribery of the issuer. The relevant agencies and responsible personnel were taken to supervise the conversation and issue warning letters. And other regulatory measures.
"IPO sponsorship business is fined, subjective and objective reasons coexist." Some senior investment bankers believe that the subjective reason lies in the steady progress of the registration system reform and the expansion of the sponsoring market, prompting various brokerages to seize the opportunity as soon as possible and as much as possible It is inevitable that there will be problems such as inadequate implementation procedures and insufficient verification.
“There may also be profit-oriented factors.” The above-mentioned senior investment bankers said that investment banks are the primary departments or subsidiaries of securities companies. Under normal circumstances, profit is one of the content of the securities company’s assessment. The person in charge of the investment banking department, Team leaders of investment banks are generally burdened with greater performance appraisal pressure. Therefore, more revenue generation and more projects have become their main responsibilities.
In addition, the "Twenty-eight Law" is prominent in the field of investment banking.
The above-mentioned senior investment bankers said that in the process of competing for projects, small and medium securities firms have natural disadvantages, and some of the proposed IPO companies are of weak quality. Small and medium securities firms, especially small securities firms, may undertake some projects of poor quality due to serious business shortages.
For objective reasons, the above-mentioned senior investment bankers believe that, on the one hand, certain IPO companies have some financial and legal problems, which are difficult to solve in practice or the cost is too high, and the sponsor chooses to declare with illness.
On the other hand, individual IPO companies deliberately conceal some serious problems, and the sponsors failed to find out and solve them in time due to reasons such as rush time and limited technical means.
According to the information on the official website of the Securities Association of China, as of now, there are 7412 sponsor representatives in my country. Among them, 7192 have met the basic requirements of the proficiency evaluation test and have no bad integrity information, and those who have no bad credibility information but the proficiency evaluation test does not meet the basic requirements There are 16 people and 204 people who have met the basic requirements of the level evaluation test but have bad integrity information.
Among the 204 sponsor representatives, 3 violated laws and regulations, 113 violated regulatory requirements, 68 violated self-discipline rules, 19 violated company systems, and 1 was due to other reasons.
In addition, among the above-mentioned 7192 sponsor representatives, 1818 sponsored projects included or exceeded 3.
In the context of the registration system, the quality "gateway" of listed companies moves forward, and sponsors must assume more responsibilities.
An investment banker who did not want to be named told the "Securities Daily" reporter that under the registration system, major securities firms have a large number of reserves. In contrast, there is still a large gap for experienced sponsor representatives.
Currently, first-line sponsor representatives are accelerating their rejuvenation.
In the past two years, industry policies have changed relatively quickly, involving detailed and complicated regulations, requiring relevant personnel to learn and adapt more quickly; in addition, due to high work intensity and narrow career advancement paths, the exit rate of the guarantee is relatively high.
After the implementation of the full registration system, the sponsorship business market may face the problem of insufficient insurance agency experience.
This person believes that the purpose of strong supervision is to urge sponsors to improve the quality of practice. Under the registration system, the responsibilities of intermediaries need to be further consolidated.
For intermediaries, the most important thing is to manage and control risks reasonably.
(Securities Daily)