The move confers official sanction on hundreds of trading rooms that have previously operated on a quasi-legal basis
China's ailing state-owned enterprises (SOE) have been ordered to list any assets they wish to sell on the country's emerging equity exchanges. The move confers official sanction on several hundred trading rooms that have previously operated on the fringes.
Li Rongrong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac), which overseas China's SOEs, said the equity exchanges would be the main channel for future state asset sales.
'Enterprises can choose which assets and equities exchanges to use for transactions but they should release relevant financial information about their own status and the assets to be sold properly on the exchange platform,' the Xinhua News Service reported.
'This is the first time Sasac has stipulated in an official document that equity transactions have to take place through exchanges,' said Zheng Ziqiang, assistant to the president of the Beijing Zhongguancun Technology and Equity Exchange.
While this policy has been discussed informally, this is the first time it has been enacted publicly, having taken effect at the beginning of this month.
In other comments, Mr Li hinted that the pace of selling shares to the public and listing these SOEs would proceed gradually to avoid roiling investors concerned about the government dumping shares on the market. 'We will wait for a while, until the shareholders calm down. This will avoid unnecessary fluctuations of the stock market and be conducive to the benefits of all parties concerned,' Mr Li was quoted as saying.