Shanghai Stock Exchange Sci-Tech Innovation Board will start facilitating transactions on July 22. The new platform has a vast potential to eclipse other local venues.
It took China 259 days to construct and launch the sci-tech board, which rightfully holds its place among the hottest topics being discussed within both tech and financial circles nowadays. The Shanghai bourse officially announced last Friday that July 22 will be the first day of its operating. Being initiated as a narrative, the new platform had gone through numerous development stages (most of which are of experimental nature) and was eventually opened four weeks ago.
So far, over 140 companies have submitted listing applications to the SSE, 25 of them are expected to compose the first batch of publicly traded firms on the new venue. There are some special cases with distinctive characteristics among this group. For instance, Raytron’s announced share price corresponds to the highest projected post-IPO P/E ratio; chipmaker HeJian Technology has been losing serious money throughout the last three years; rail-transportation juggernaut CRSC is the first H+A-share company is the history and the largest (operating income of over USD 5 billion last year) entity to issue shares on the new venue. Hangzhou-based Hangke Technology priced its IPO at CNY 27.43 (USD 4.00) per share – the company is going to issue the priciest shares among those announced SSE STAR market public offerings to date.
While global investors are all agog over the trading platform’s first steps, the China Securities Regulatory Commission enforces laws by catching violators: the regulator fined China International Capital Corporation (CICC), one of the leading investment banks in the country, as it faked IPO-related data when was underwriting the shares of the Beijing-based CBTC system producer Traffic control Technology (交控科技).
We expect that markets, fueled by speculators, will face jolts right after trading activity on the new platform starts off: according to the STAR Market’s rules, there are no daily share price limits within five days after an IPO.