The financing of private enterprises welcomes favorable policies

New progress has been made in the financial services of private enterprises. The recent meeting on financial support for the development of private enterprises revealed that the financial management department is studying and formulating policies to further support private enterprises, mainly from the aspects of increasing the input of financial resources, giving play to the role of multi-level capital markets, and facilitating cross-border financing.

Increase resource investment

"Doing a good job in financial services for private enterprises will help further stimulate the resilience and vitality of private enterprises, and provide strong support for building a new development pattern and achieving high-quality development." Pan Gongsheng, secretary of the People's Bank of China party committee and president of the bank, said that it is necessary to continue to increase the investment in financial resources and elements, and treat enterprises of all types of ownership fairly and equitably. Further increase credit investment for private enterprises in key areas such as scientific and technological innovation, "specialization, specialization and innovation", and green and low-carbon, and smooth the financing channels for private enterprises' stocks, debts, and loans.

Pan Gongsheng said that in terms of loans, monetary policy tools such as relending and rediscounting will be implemented, financial institutions will be guided to strengthen docking visits, promote the innovation of financial products and services, and continue to increase credit investment to private enterprises. In terms of bonds, we will promote the expansion of private enterprise bond financing support tools and expand the scale of private enterprise bond financing. Encourage and guide institutional investors to allocate private enterprise bonds. In terms of equity, we will support the listing and refinancing of private enterprises, actively play the role of local government special guidance funds, and improve the investment exit mechanism.

Zhou Liang, deputy director of the State Administration of Financial Supervision, introduced that the State Administration of Financial Supervision supervises all banking and insurance institutions to treat all types of ownership enterprises equally, improve the long-term mechanism of "daring to lend, willing to lend, and able to lend", increase credit support for private enterprises, strive to reduce the financing costs of private enterprises, give play to the function of insurance protection, enrich financial products that meet the needs of private enterprises, vigorously improve the convenience of financial services for private enterprises, and create a better financial environment for the development and growth of private economy.

"The CSRC will promote the reform of the registration system, improve the function of the capital market, and further play the important role of the capital market in supporting the financing growth of private enterprises." Wang Jianjun, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said that it will support qualified private enterprises to list financing and refinancing, and optimize the "small and fast" review mechanism for mergers and acquisitions. Support securities companies to increase service support for private enterprises, encourage participation in private enterprise equity financing support tools, and increase financing channels for private enterprises through private equity asset management plans. In-depth implementation of special support plans and support tools for private enterprise bond financing. Comprehensive use of stocks, bonds and other tools to safely respond to and prevent the risks of private real estate enterprises.

In recent years, with the strong support of the financial system, the benefits of financial inclusion have been expanding, and the sense of gain of private enterprises has been continuously improved. "All departments should thoroughly implement the 'Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy,' and solidly promote the implementation of various policies and achieve results." Gao Yunlong, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said that the Federation of Industry and Commerce will actively do a good job in guiding and providing services, thoroughly implement the strategic cooperation agreements signed with relevant financial institutions, build a communication and docking platform between banks and enterprises, strengthen education and training for private enterprises, and create favorable conditions for private enterprises to finance.

Strengthen financing protection

The meeting also held a signing ceremony for financial support for the development of private enterprises, and 18 private enterprises signed contracts with large state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Interbank Market Institutional Investors Association. The signing focuses on four major areas: core supply chain enterprises and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, specialized and special new enterprises and manufacturing enterprises, green enterprises and science and technology enterprises, real estate enterprises and other bond-issuing enterprises.

"This helps stabilize market expectations and boost the confidence of private enterprises." The chief economist of CITIC Securities clearly said that the meeting released a positive signal of continuous policy optimization and increasing support.

"Compared with state-owned enterprises, the operation and financing of private enterprises are more affected by the economic situation. When economic development is under pressure, some private enterprises have difficulties in operation and their financing capacity has declined significantly. At this time, the risk appetite of financial institutions will also decline pro-cyclically, and they will tend to invest more money in more stable state-owned enterprises. Zhang Xu, chief fixed income analyst at Everbright Securities, said.

In recent years, credit support for private enterprises has been increasing, and financing costs have decreased steadily. Data show that in the first half of this year, loans to private enterprises increased by 5.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 9016.13 billion yuan year-on-year, and the balance increased by 1.1% year-on-year; The number of private enterprise loan customers increased by 5.0% year-on-year; The average interest rate of newly issued private enterprise loans decreased by 15.<> percentage points from last year's average.

Experts believe that in terms of the three financing channels of equity, bonds and loans, for some small-scale private enterprises, IPO (initial public offering) and bond issuance are still difficult, and the financing guarantee of banks is particularly important. In the future, the banking industry should be more active in supporting private enterprises, such as being more flexible in credit policies such as mortgage guarantees, further reducing financing costs, and creating more convenient conditions for private enterprises to finance.

Broaden access to financing

Recently, Midea Real Estate Group Co., Ltd. issued the fourth medium-term note in 2023 under the private enterprise bond financing support tool ("second arrow"), with an issuance scale of 15.<> billion yuan. The funds raised in this note will be mainly used to ensure the delivery of Midea's real estate projects under construction. It is understood that this is the second time that Midea Real Estate has received policy support from the "second arrow" this year, and it is also another time that Midea Real Estate has achieved bond issuance in the form of bank-enterprise cooperation. At present, Midea Real Estate has gradually resumed market-oriented independent financing, becoming the first private housing enterprise to resume bond credit issuance with the help of the "second arrow".

The "second arrow" is one of the financial support policy packages for private enterprises. In 2018, in order to solve the financing difficulties of private enterprises and small and micro enterprises, the People's Bank of China, together with relevant departments, launched the "three arrows" policy combination. Among them, the "first arrow" is the credit support of private enterprises, the "second arrow" is the private enterprise bond financing support tool, and the "third arrow" is the private enterprise equity financing support tool, the purpose is to support private enterprises to expand financing channels and alleviate the problem of "water shortage" of private enterprises.

Zhang Xu believes that on the one hand, the "second arrow" can support private enterprises temporarily experiencing liquidity difficulties to issue bonds and raise funds by guaranteeing credit enhancement, creating credit risk mitigation certificates, and directly purchasing bonds. On the other hand, it releases the signal that the financial management department treats state-owned enterprises and private enterprises equally, and firmly supports the issuance and financing of private enterprises, which can play a role in boosting market confidence.

Data show that since the extension and expansion in November 2022, the "second arrow" has supported 11 private enterprises to issue more than 18 billion yuan of debt financing tools, which has played a positive role in blocking the risk spread of housing enterprises, promoting the reversal of market expectations, alleviating the credit contraction of private enterprises, and maintaining the stability of corporate bond financing. Recently, many private enterprises such as Jinhui, Longhu and Shandong Hongqiao have also continued to use the "second arrow" to issue bonds for financing, and the financial pressure has eased and investor confidence has gradually restored.

China Debt Credit Promotion Company said that in the next stage, it will continue to deeply implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on financial support for the development of the private economy, take the financial support for the development of private enterprises as the guide, strengthen the development results of financial support for private enterprises, continue to promote the expansion, increment and efficiency of the "second arrow", increase the implementation intensity, reduce the constraints of conditions, make the "second arrow" policy benefit private enterprises, and provide reliable, efficient and convenient financial services for private enterprises. Help the stable and healthy development of the private economy. (Economic Daily reporter Yao Jin)