Our reporter Xing Meng
Entering 2022, a number of IPO projects have "suddenly braked", and related companies have withdrawn their applications one after another.
On January 11, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued two notices of termination of the registration process for stock issuance. In view of the two companies to be listed and the sponsor voluntarily requesting the withdrawal of the registration application documents, the China Securities Regulatory Commission decided to terminate the registration process for the issuance of these two companies.
On the same day, three companies planning to go public also announced that they voluntarily withdraw their IPO applications, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange terminated the review of the three companies.
According to the announcement of the Securities Regulatory Commission and the stock exchange, a reporter from Securities Daily found that, based on the announcement date, before half of January, 12 A-share listed companies have terminated their IPOs, all of which have voluntarily withdrawn their applications.
From the perspective of the listed sectors, 7 companies plan to list on the Growth Enterprise Market, 3 companies plan to list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and 2 companies plan to list on the Beijing Stock Exchange.
Specifically, among the above-mentioned 12 companies that voluntarily withdraw and terminate their IPO projects, 3 belong to the chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry, the largest number.
For IPO projects of chemical raw materials and chemical product manufacturing, environmental protection issues have become the focus of inquiries from regulatory authorities.
For example, for a company that terminated its IPO on January 11, the regulatory authorities listed four major issues in environmental protection alone during the inquiry, and requested a special verification report.
Specifically, it mainly includes whether the issuer's production and operation and fundraising projects belong to restricted or eliminated industries, whether the projects that have been built, under construction and fundraising projects meet the requirements of dual control of energy consumption where the projects are located, and whether the products produced are high-polluting industries. , high environmental risk products and other issues.
"The manufacturing of chemical raw materials and chemical products is usually highly related to environmental protection and the disposal of dangerous goods, so this aspect is the focus of the audit." Chen Li, chief economist of Chuancai Securities and director of the research institute, told the "Securities Daily" reporter.
"Since last year, the regulatory authorities have increased the review of energy consumption-related indicators in the chemical industry, which is beneficial to the new energy industry." Fu Rao, executive director of the International New Economic Research Institute, told the "Securities Daily" reporter that chemical industry companies are mostly concerned with traditional energy sources. The development and utilization of the plant, and the sustainability of its operation and development may be affected by factors such as high pollution and high energy consumption.
It is worth noting that the 12 IPO projects terminated this year were all withdrawn voluntarily.
In this regard, Chen Li believes that it is a normal phenomenon.
He said that under the registration system, there are higher requirements for the information disclosure of enterprises and the openness of their business conditions, especially in line with national industrial policies, and they cannot violate regulations and frauds.
These factors contributed to the increase in withdrawals.
Market participants believe that the voluntary withdrawal of applications by enterprises is related to multiple factors such as strict regulatory review, strategic planning adjustments, flawed compliance, and substandard performance.
Strategic planning adjustments are a common reason for companies that terminate IPO projects.
For example, a company listed the reason as "in view of recent changes in the capital market and policy orientation, based on a responsible attitude to investors and consideration of the company's future strategic development"; some companies said that the IPO was terminated because "based on the current status and Considering the company's future strategic development, the company will re-evaluate and plan the capital market path."
In addition, the strict review of IPO companies by regulatory authorities may also be an important factor.
At the end of January 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Regulations on On-site Inspection of IPO Enterprises", which standardized the basic requirements, standards, and procedures for on-site inspection of IPO companies, increased on-site inspection of IPO companies, and further consolidated the responsibilities of issuers and intermediaries. .
The results of the on-site inspection of the 28th batch of IPO companies notified by the CSRC showed that some IPO companies under review had problems such as inappropriate accounting treatment, insufficient information disclosure, and inadequate implementation of internal control systems, and some intermediaries had irregular performance procedures. , the manuscript record is incomplete, etc.
Chen Li believes that the supervision of the regulatory authorities is to carry out pre-emptive investor protection work, so as to avoid the hasty listing of some unqualified companies, which will disrupt the market and force companies to pay more attention to due diligence and legal operations.
(Securities Daily)