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Since the "8.27 new policy" last year, the IPO has been tightened in a phased manner for a year. During this year, which provincial enterprises have been "braving the rapids"?

Yicai, based on the data disclosed by the stock exchanges, has calculated that in the past year, the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing stock exchanges have newly accepted 135 IPO applications. After the termination of the IPO review of 39 companies, there are still 96 companies under review or listing, which come from 22 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government). Among them, companies from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong account for 51%.

Under the strict supervision of the IPO, from August 27 last year to August 26 this year (referring to the update date disclosed by the stock exchanges), a total of 488 companies intending to go public have terminated the review or registration. As of August 26, there are still 330 companies in line for review or waiting for the registration results.

So, in this year, which provincial (autonomous region, municipality directly under the Central Government) companies have "leaped over the dragon's gate" and achieved listing? Since August 27 last year, a total of 129 companies have been listed in the A-share market, with companies from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai accounting for 70%.

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96 companies have braved the rapids, with 51% from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong.

In the past year, the IPO market has seen frequent strict supervision policies, with the positioning and direction becoming increasingly clear.

On August 27, 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) proposed to tighten the IPO pace in a phased manner. Then, on March 15, 2024, the "Opinions on Strictly Controlling the Access to Issuance and Listing and Improving the Quality of Listed Companies from the Source (Trial)" were implemented, clarifying the strict control of the quality of companies applying for listing, and emphasizing the responsibility of intermediary institutions as "gatekeepers"; on the same day, the "Regulations on the On-site Inspection of First-time Listed Companies" were issued and implemented, emphasizing "responsibility upon declaration," and stipulating that companies that withdraw their listing applications during the inspection process will be "investigated to the end."

On April 12 this year, the new "Nine National Articles" were introduced, which clearly control the access to issuance and listing, including specific measures such as: raising the listing standards of the main board and the growth enterprise market, improving the evaluation standards for the scientific and technological attributes of the STAR Market; expanding the on-site inspection coverage of companies under review and related intermediary institutions; including situations such as "clearing-style" dividends before listing in the negative list of issuance and listing; and strictly regulating the spin-off listing. Subsequently, the CSRC revised the guidance for the evaluation of scientific and technological attributes (trial), and the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges also revised the relevant rules for issuance and listing accordingly.

On June 19, the "Eight Articles of the STAR Market" were released, proposing eight measures to strengthen the "hard technology" positioning of the STAR Market and to carry out pilot projects for deepening the issuance and underwriting system.

Two months later, on August 16, the "State Council's Regulations on Regulating the Services Provided by Intermediary Institutions for Companies' Public Issuance of Shares (Draft for Comments)" were released, requiring that intermediary fees should not be linked to the listing results, and local governments are prohibited from giving listing rewards.Against this backdrop, from August 27th last year to August 27th this year, the three exchanges in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing have newly accepted 135 IPO applications, including 18 from the Shanghai Stock Exchange (9 on the main board and 9 on the STAR Market), 15 from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (7 on the main board and 8 on the ChiNext board), and 102 from the Beijing Stock Exchange.

Among these 135 companies, 39 have had their IPO applications terminated, leaving 96 companies in the pipeline. Of these, 90 are under review, 3 have passed the board, 2 have gone public, and 1 is about to go public.

Amid a phased tightening of IPOs, these 96 companies can be considered as advancing bravely against the current. They come from 22 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government), with Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong having a comparable number of companies, all above 10, specifically 17, 16, and 16 respectively; Beijing, Hubei, and Sichuan have 8, 6, and 5 companies respectively.

The remaining 16 provinces have fewer than 5 companies each, with Shaanxi and Anhui each having 4, Shandong and Hebei each having 3, Liaoning and Fujian each having 2, and the remaining 10 provinces each having 1.

Overall, in the year since the "8.27 new policy," there has been a rush of companies withdrawing their IPO applications. Referring to the updated dates disclosed by the exchanges, from August 27th last year to August 26th this year, a total of 488 companies intending to go public have terminated their review or registration, with 173 applying for the Shanghai market, 232 for the Shenzhen market, and 83 for the Beijing Stock Exchange.

After the majority of companies have terminated their review, how many are still under review? According to statistics by Yicai based on the disclosures of the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing stock exchanges, as of August 26th, there are still 330 companies in the queue for review or awaiting registration results. Among them, 101 have applied for the Beijing Stock Exchange, 93 for the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and 136 for the Shenzhen market.

Of the 129 companies that have gone public, 70% come from these four provinces.

In addition to the companies still in line for an IPO, most of the companies that have gone public in the past year also come from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai.

Since August 27th last year, a total of 129 companies have gone public in the A-share market, with 35 listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen main boards, 17 on the STAR Market, 43 on the ChiNext board, and 34 on the Beijing Stock Exchange.These 129 companies come from 19 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government), among which Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu have more than 20 listed companies, with 26, 23, and 21 respectively; Shanghai has 14 listed companies.

The remaining 15 provinces have less than 10 listed companies, with Beijing, Shandong, and Hubei having 8, 6, and 5 listed companies respectively; Fujian and Shaanxi both have 4, Anhui and Hebei both have 3, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Chongqing all have 2, and Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Henan, and Liaoning all have 1.

So, which boards have the companies from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai mainly chosen for listing?

Guangdong companies mostly choose to list on the ChiNext board, with 14 companies, while 5 companies each have listed on the main board and the Beijing Stock Exchange, and 2 companies on the STAR Market.

Companies from Zhejiang and Jiangsu have a relatively balanced number of listings on the main board (8 and 6 respectively), ChiNext (6 and 5 respectively), and the Beijing Stock Exchange (both 7), with a relatively smaller number on the STAR Market (2 and 3 respectively).

Shanghai's companies mainly list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with 7 on the main board and 4 on the STAR Market, and 2 and 1 companies listed on ChiNext and the Beijing Stock Exchange respectively.

A venture capital executive analyzed to Yicai that the reason why there are more newly listed companies in provinces like Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shanghai is mainly due to the more developed local economy, which has several major advantages: first, the related industrial chains are relatively complete; second, the talent structure is relatively rich; third, there is a concentration of investment institutions, and the supporting funds are relatively abundant. These factors combined will lead to good companies gathering in these areas.

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