Securities Times reporter Tan Chudan

　　Is the IPO slowing down?

And look at the data.

　　The emergence of the breakout wave of registered new shares has aroused the attention of all parties in the market, and more far-reaching impacts are coming quietly.

　　According to the statistics of Securities Times reporters, the number of IPO registration approvals decreased significantly in April, and the number of new shares that started the issuance and underwriting work also declined significantly; the issuance of new shares in May recovered, or better than the previous month, but the activity was still far less than March.

　　According to industry insiders, we will insist on the normalization of IPO issuance and leave the control of the issuance rhythm to the market for self-regulation, and we should not press the "pause button" easily.

　　IPO underwriting plummeted

　　Since the beginning of this year, the listing performance of registered IPOs has continued to decline, and even broke losses, and some online and offline IPO applicants have left the market one after another.

According to an analyst at Kaiyuan Securities, in April 2022, the average first-day growth rate of the Sci-Tech Innovation Board and the ChiNext Board further dropped to -10.94% and 21.06%, and the registration-based sector’s new revenue was negative for the first time.

　　The IPO market is cold, and the issuance and underwriting process has also slowed down spontaneously.

According to the statistics of Wind data by a reporter from Securities Times, only 8 registered IPO companies (after excluding the IPO companies of the Beijing Stock Exchange) started their IPO in April, which is a big gap compared with 43 companies in March, and even less than that of the Spring Festival. Holiday in February (15 homes).

It can be seen that the underwriting of new shares issued in April was relatively sluggish.

　　The fundraising situation of the above-mentioned 8 IPO companies is quite satisfactory. Among them, 2 companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board failed to raise funds as expected, and only completed 40 to 50% of the planned fundraising.

　　Entering May, the rhythm of IPO issuance and underwriting has increased slightly compared with April.

As of May 16, since the beginning of this month, 7 registered new shares have started the IPO within 8 working days, which is expected to be better than that in April.

But overall, the number of registered new shares to be issued may still be less than in March.

　　In the past month, the number of new shares entering the issuance and underwriting process has decreased, which may be related to the adjustment of the time window by intermediaries and issuers based on market conditions.

It is understood that in late April, the Shanghai Stock Exchange organized a symposium with a number of securities companies. The heads of several securities companies promised to fully perform their duties as "gatekeepers" in the capital market.

The symposium mentioned that it is necessary to do a good job in the management of issuers and shareholders' expectations, timely communicate the recent market conditions, do a good job in issuer education, guide issuers to raise funds reasonably, and carefully choose the issuance time window.

　　However, some brokerage investment bankers told the Securities Times reporter that the clients he contacts will not change the timing of the issuance.

A representative of a large brokerage company in East China said, "The issuer will quickly start the issuance after obtaining the approval, and will not wait for the issuance window. In the situation I have learned so far, some underwriters have not waited because the issuer can't wait." He said As long as there is no issuance failure in the market, the issuer will continue to promote the issuance.

　　An equity investor in Beijing also expressed a similar view, "We have more confidence in the companies we invest in, so even if there is an expectation of a breakout, we will not change our issuance plan."

　　A person from the capital market department of a large securities firm said that the underwriter can only give advice on the issuance window, and the final issuance timing is determined by the issuer, but the issuer will clearly inform the possible impact of the issuance timing selection on the issuance work.

　　Due to the overall slowdown in the pace of issuance and underwriting, there has been a "gap period" in the listing of registered new shares recently.

On May 17, Prius appeared on the GEM and was officially listed, but it has been 8 working days since the last registration-based IPO (Delong Laser on April 29).

Before that, except for holidays, new shares were listed almost every day.

　　IPO approvals decline

　　From the review point of view, the data shows that the number of recent IPO approvals has also dropped significantly compared to the first quarter.

　　According to incomplete statistics from Securities Times reporters, only 15 new shares were approved for registration in April, a decrease of 53% from March and also less than the 18 in February.

Since May, as of the 16th, a total of 6 new shares have been approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission for registration.

　　Some market views speculate that there may be a possibility of adjusting the rhythm of IPO approvals in response to market conditions.

However, many industry insiders suggested that the IPO should continue to be promoted step by step.

Shao Yu, chief economist of Orient Securities, once told reporters that it is necessary to adhere to the normalization of IPO issuance and adjust the speed of IPOs slightly depending on the financial market conditions, but do not press the "pause button" easily, because it will affect the ecology of the capital market.

The uncertainty of the IPO will be fed back to the early stage investment, which is not conducive to corporate financing and strategic layout, and disrupts the corporate life cycle.

　　Another person from an investment bank explained to the Securities Times reporter that the decrease in the number of IPOs was also related to supplementary data.

Since April, some IPO companies need to update the financial data of annual reports and quarterly reports, and it is expected that the pace of review has slowed down.

　　Judging from the rhythm of the registration-based new shares meeting, Wind data shows that since the beginning of this year, a total of 40 IPO companies have been arranged for the GEM and the Science and Technology Innovation Board in March, which is the month with the largest number so far.

In April, only 27 registered new shares were scheduled to attend the meeting, which was better than the situation in January and February.

　　The rhythm of the meeting in May has heated up. As of the 16th, there are 21 registered new shares that have been scheduled for the meeting, which means that the number of this month's meeting will exceed that of April.