China plots Nasdaq-style tech board
China is seeking to steal the thunder of Hong Kong and New York with a Nasdaq-style start-up board in Shanghai.
According to Reuters, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has published draft rules for this board.
“It will also help Shanghai become an international financial centre”
The so-called technology innovation board will mainly host companies in technology and emerging sectors. Not all are fintech as you’d expect, but they include high-tech equipment manufacturing, new energy, biotechnology, big data and cloud computing.
“This will enable the capital markets to support the development of China’s core technologies and innovative capabilities,” the regulator says.
“It will also help Shanghai become an international financial centre as well as a hub for technology innovation.”
Plans for the board were announced by President Xi Jinping back in November 2018 but CSRC is adding another official touch.
The idea is seen as a chance to counter US curbs on China’s tech development.
Reuters points out that this will not be the first time that China has come up with a new listing avenue in the hope of creating tech companies as successful as US giants, such as Google and Amazon.
There was Shenzhen’s tech-heavy ChiNext board, which rose well after its 2010 launch, but since 2015 it’s all fizzled out. Beijing’s New Third Board, an over-the-counter market for start-ups, also suffered a similar fate.
Reuters adds that the board will be paired with a registration-based system for initial public offerings and will be less stringent in its listing criteria, such as allowing companies that have yet to make a profit and start-ups with weighted voting rights, to list.
Speaking of Nasdaq, today (30 January), it outbid Euronext with a $770 million offer for the Oslo Stock Exchange.
