Author: Duan Siyu
Compared with 4 banks listed in 2021, the IPO of banks in 2022 will be cold. Only Bank of Lanzhou (001227.SZ) successfully landed in A shares; In the "waiting area".
"The overall market was weak last year. As a 'big guy', the pace of issuance may be affected." A senior analyst in the banking industry told reporters. More prudent, corresponding counseling and approval time will be longer.
Looking forward to 2023, many industry insiders said that under the background of increasing support for the real economy, bank credit will continue to grow, and the demand for capital replenishment is still relatively urgent; in addition, with the recovery of macroeconomic fundamentals, market sentiment It is expected that the listing environment of banks will gradually turn friendly.
Only Lanzhou Bank will be listed in 2022
From declaration to meeting to issuance, listing a company is a cumbersome and complex system engineering involving many links.
For the banking industry, the road to listing last year was not smooth. Only Bank of Lanzhou was listed on the A-share market at the beginning of the year, and no other bank was listed.
This situation is similar to that in 2020, when only Xiamen Bank (601187.SH) was successfully listed, and the previous year 2019 was a "big year" for banks to be listed, including Postal Savings Bank, Zheshang Bank, Yu Rong Commercial Bank, etc. Eight banks successfully "broke through" and raised a total of 65.4 billion yuan.
In 2021, banks also ushered in a small upsurge in listings. Four banks, Bank of Chongqing, Qilu Bank, Ruifeng Bank and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, went public successively, raising a total of 16 billion yuan, expanding the A-share listed bank team to 41 .
The above-mentioned senior banking industry analyst told reporters that the small number of banks listed in 2022 may be related to the impact of the epidemic, resulting in relatively slow work progress; coupled with the poor market environment, the overall valuation level of the banking industry has reached the lowest level in history, and listing is more difficult. The relevant departments may be relatively cautious in promoting the IPO of small and medium-sized banks.
"If it is listed, there is a high probability that there will be a break."
According to Choice data, as of December 30, 2022, the Shenwan Tier 1 banking sector has fallen by 10.47% for the year, with a price-to-book ratio (PB) of only 0.47 times, ranking last among all industries.
Among them, the city business behavior is 0.59 times, the agricultural business behavior is 0.52 times, the stock behavior is 0.50 times, and the state-owned large behavior is 0.44 times.
Among the 42 A-share listed banks, the bankruptcy rate exceeded 90%.
2022 is undoubtedly a "stressful year" for the valuation of the banking industry.
Not only that, but in the banking industry in 2022, there will be the first bank that fails to pass the meeting, breaking the practice of "every meeting must pass" the IPO of banking financial institutions.
In recent years, during the listing process of banks, some voluntarily withdrew their IPO applications and terminated the listing, and some were canceled the review on the eve of the meeting, but were rejected by the Issuance Examination Committee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission at the meeting. Dafeng Rural Commercial Bank is the first case.
According to the announcement, the issuance review committee meeting mainly asked Dafeng Rural Commercial Bank three aspects, including competitiveness as a regional agricultural commercial bank, asset quality, effectiveness of relevant internal control measures, and relationship with rural credit cooperatives in Jiangsu Province.
This reflects that the listing of small and medium-sized banks is not easy.
In the A-share market, there are many cases where banks have been queuing for years and still have failed to get listed.
From the perspective of industry insiders, bank listing itself is very complicated. Some domestic small and medium-sized banks need to complete restructuring, follow-up listing guidance, declaration, etc., and there are a large number of banks applying for it. The average time is about two and a half years.
"Furthermore, considering that some small and medium-sized banks need to further improve their internal equity structure and corporate governance during the application queuing period; financial indicators that are not up to standard and operating performance that are not stable enough will affect the progress of listing acceptance." Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, told reporters. Last year, due to changes in the internal and external economic environment, the operating performance of some small and medium-sized banks fluctuated greatly, and the internal governance of a few small and medium-sized banks also needs to be improved.
He further stated that based on some past cases, if small and medium-sized banks want to successfully pass the meeting and go public as soon as possible, they need to cultivate their internal skills, build a clear equity structure, improve the internal governance structure, conduct business in a compliant and stable manner, develop a clear strategic positioning, and continuously improve competition. force.
Enthusiasm of small and medium-sized banks remains undiminished
Although the pace of listing has been delayed, the enthusiasm for listing of small and medium-sized banks has not diminished.
According to the information on companies applying for A-share IPOs disclosed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission at the end of 2022, there are currently 11 banks waiting in line.
Among them, 5 companies plan to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and 6 companies plan to list on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
According to the relevant work procedures of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the review workflow of initial public offerings is mainly divided into acceptance and pre-disclosure, feedback meeting, pre-disclosure update, preliminary review meeting, issuance review meeting, sealing, approval and issuance, etc.
Among the above-mentioned banks, the review status of Hubei Bank is "feedback", and the status of the rest of the banks is "pre-disclosure update".
As far as the queue is concerned, as the large banks have basically completed their listings, city commercial banks and rural commercial banks have naturally become the successors.
Most of these banks are slow to go public, and many banks currently queuing up have been waiting for 3 or 4 years.
For example, Bozhou Yaodu Rural Commercial Bank, Anhui Maanshan Rural Commercial Bank, Jiangsu Haian Rural Commercial Bank, and Jiangsu Kunshan Rural Commercial Bank have been accepted as early as 2018.
In addition to those who are waiting, there are also new members entering the arena one after another.
In late December last year, CITIC Securities signed a tutoring agreement with Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, and the Sichuan Securities Regulatory Bureau has also accepted the tutoring record of Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank.
It is understood that the IPO counseling work of Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank will start from December 2022 to May 2024.
The counseling content includes three stages: understanding the problems existing in Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, forming a counseling plan, carrying out intensive learning and training, completing the counseling plan and preparing listing application documents.
If the counseling work goes well, Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank will enter the listing queuing process in one and a half years.
Before Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, Yibin Commercial Bank and Weifang Bank also successively launched the bidding work of IPO counseling institutions.
For small and medium-sized banks, listing is an important channel to replenish core tier-one capital. The increase in capital strength will help support the development of banking business, thereby enhancing the overall competitiveness of banks.
Now in 2023, it remains to be seen whether the above-mentioned banks can enter the A-share stage as they wish.
However, in the opinion of many industry insiders, compared with 2022, with the improvement of the economic environment this year, the banking industry is expected to usher in a warm wind.
Zeng Gang, director of the Shanghai Finance and Development Laboratory, told China Business News that from the perspective of the banking industry, in 2023, it is necessary to further increase financing for the real economy and strengthen support for the economy. Under this guidance, credit will remain stable. Reasonable growth, which will also increase banks' need for capital replenishment.
"It is expected that in 2023 there will be a greater demand for bank capital replenishment, including both listing financing and bond issuance. Among them, the replenishment of core tier-one capital may be more urgent." Zeng Gang said, on the other hand, in order to better leverage small and medium banks To serve entities and support the role of small and micro enterprises, it is recommended that in terms of listing policies, continue to support the listing of qualified small and medium-sized banks.
In fact, in May last year, the Financial Affairs Commission of the State Council stated that small and medium-sized banks are of great significance to serving the real economy and small and medium-sized enterprises. working plan.
"Although the number of A-share IPO banks has dropped sharply, as the macroeconomic fundamentals pick up and market sentiment picks up, the environment for bank listings will gradually turn friendly." Zhou Maohua said that the recent restoration of the valuation of the banking sector will also Boost the enthusiasm of some small and medium-sized banks to go public.
In his opinion, since the listing of banks will not only broaden the bank's financing channels and enhance the bank's ability to resist risks, it will also help promote its internal governance, improve operating standards and operating efficiency, and the benefits brought by the listing determine the sprint. A-share IPO will still be the direction that many banks will strive for in the future.