BEIJING - 1,014 Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock
exchanges have completed shareholding reforms that convert their nontradable
shares into tradable shares, the two bourses said in separate announcements
Monday.
Beginning Monday, the stocks of these firms will recover their original
names, with the prefix "G" removed.
Meanwhile, as a reminder to investors, the prefix "S" will be added to the
stock names of the 276 firms on the bourses that have not completed the
shareholding reform, the announcements said.
Analysts here said this is an indication that the one-year-old shareholding
reform is almost at an end, ushering in a whole new era in China's burgeoning
stock market.
Most of China's listed companies were former state-owned enterprises. Even
after becoming public firms, they were still controlled by the state, whose
majority stocks could not be traded on the bourses.
Not surprisingly, this situation failed to motivate management to improve the
performance of their firms. Nor could it provide proper protection for minority
investors.
Launched in 2005, the shareholding reform usually involved the distribution
of free shares to holders of tradable shares, to compensate for potential losses
when formally state-owned shares hit the market after the reform.
The 1,014 firms that have finished the shareholding reform include all the
major blue chips. Together they account for over 90 percent of market
capitalization.
"Split share ownership has been a major system defect in China's stock market
and a major bottleneck hampering further growth. The shareholding reform has
laid a solid foundation for revitalizing the stock market," said Shang Fulin,
chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
Observers, however, warned that there remains much to be done to build a fair
and efficient stock market in China.
The new market has produced new challenges for the regulators in relation to
the improvement of stock issuance, trading and regulating systems, the
attraction of more qualified investors and the protection of minority investors,
said Hu Zuliu, general manager of Goldman Sachs Group (Asia) Ltd.