The author is the chairman of Orient Securities
In April this year, the State Council promulgated the new "National Nine Articles", emphasizing that the capital market should fully reflect the political and people's nature, more effectively protect investors, and highlight the main line of strengthening supervision, preventing risks, and promoting high-quality development. As one of the most important participants in the capital market, how can securities companies implement the spirit of the new "National Nine Articles" and write a new chapter of development? The Securities Times has launched a special column of "Implementing the New 'National Nine Articles' Securities Industry in Action", inviting relevant persons in charge of the securities industry to give advice and gather wisdom and strength for the development of the capital market, which is the third part of the column.
Recently, a series of supporting measures to promote the high-quality development of the capital market, such as the "Several Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Risk Prevention and Promoting the High-quality Development of the Capital Market" (referred to as the "New "National Nine Articles") issued by the State Council and the "Opinions on Strengthening the Supervision of Securities Companies and Public Funds and Accelerating the Construction of First-class Investment Banks and Investment Institutions (Trial)" issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, reflect the great importance and ardent expectations of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council for the capital market, and also point out the direction for the healthy development of the market.
As one of the core subjects of the capital market, the quality of listed companies directly affects the investment value of the market and the protection of investors' rights and interests. With the introduction of a series of measures, all parties in the market can carry out systematic and comprehensive supervision in all aspects of listing, continuous supervision, delisting, mergers and acquisitions, and post-delisting, provide services that accompany the whole process, work together to improve the quality of listed companies, improve the value of market investment, and help build a high-quality capital market that matches the financial power.
Comprehensive policies to keep valuable companies in the market
The new "National Nine Measures" outline an exciting blueprint for the high-quality development of listed companies, and we look forward to the gradual introduction of more comprehensive and detailed policies in the future, so that listed companies in all aspects of the capital market can receive clear guidance, so that effective regulatory policies can run through the whole life cycle of listed companies.
In terms of listing supervision, the source is clean and clean, and strict access to issuance and listing will improve the quality of listed companies from the source. The new "National Nine Articles" will further improve the issuance and listing system, strengthen the responsibility of the whole chain of issuance and listing, and increase the supervision of issuance and underwriting, which will improve the listing standards, improve the evaluation standards of scientific and technological innovation attributes, consolidate the first responsibility of issuers and the "gatekeeper" responsibilities of intermediaries, clarify the disclosure requirements of dividend policies, and strictly supervise spin-offs and listings. It is recommended to start from the source and upgrade the supervision of all aspects and the whole process of the operation of the company to be listed, financial performance, underwriting and sponsorship, listing standards, valuation, profit distribution and protection of small and medium-sized shareholders, so as to maintain a good issuance order and ecology in the capital market.
In terms of continuous supervision, cash dividends as an important form of achieving investment returns and sharing business results, is an important embodiment of respecting and protecting the rights and interests of investors and helping to achieve common prosperity. The new "National Nine Articles" proposes to effectively supervise listed companies to pay more attention to shareholder returns by strengthening the supervision of dividends and restricting the reduction of shareholdings by major shareholders of companies that have not paid dividends or have a low proportion of dividends, so as to improve the investment attractiveness of listed companies. At the same time, it is proposed to formulate market value management guidelines for listed companies to promote the company's focus on long-term development and market value growth, which will help form stable market investment expectations.
In terms of delisting supervision, the new "National Nine Articles" proposes to increase the supervision of delisting of listed companies. In the past, the high value of the "shell" of A-share companies has bred the rent-seeking motivation of the market, causing serious damage to the market environment and the quality of the company, and the phenomenon of "shell speculation" has increased the instability and investment risk of the market. By reducing the value of the "shell" and smoothing the diversified delisting channels, it will help the market to form a good entry and exit mechanism, and if the company does not have the ability to continue to operate in time, it can highlight the position of valuable enterprises in the market, thereby improving the overall quality of the market.
In terms of M&A and restructuring supervision, the new "National Nine Articles" encourage listed companies to focus on their main business, comprehensively use M&A and restructuring to improve the quality of development, and at the same time strengthen M&A and restructuring supervision, strengthen the relevance of the main business, and strictly control the quality of injected assets. It is recommended to further explore the marketization and flexibility of M&A pricing under the policy framework, encourage market-oriented consultation, stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises for M&A and reorganization, and encourage the integration between listed companies to give full play to the scale effect and synergy, which will help further improve the industrial concentration and market competitiveness of enterprises in the mainland.
In terms of promoting the entry of medium and long-term funds into the market, the new "National Nine Articles" propose to vigorously promote the entry of medium and long-term funds into the market, continue to expand the strength of long-term investment, establish a market ecology that cultivates long-term investment, improve the basic system for long-term investment, and build a policy system to support "long-term money and long-term investment". A series of policies are expected to bring more long-term and stable incremental funds to the market, cultivate a market ecology for long-term investment, and force listed companies to improve their own development quality and enhance investment value. It is expected that more measures will be introduced in the future to develop equity public funds, improve the investment flexibility of enterprise annuities and personal pensions, introduce more long-term capital, and form a stable investment force.
The whole process service helps to improve the quality of listed companies
Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, proposed "strengthening the foundation" and "strict supervision and management", which are inseparable from the functions of securities companies as sponsors. It is the bounden responsibility of sponsors to improve the quality of listed companies and supervise and strengthen investor returns.
First, as the "gatekeeper" of the capital market, sponsors should strengthen their practice standards in project screening, due diligence and information disclosure under the guidance of the new "China Nine Articles" to ensure that the recommended companies meet the new listing standards. This involves not only paying attention to the financial status and business model of the enterprise, but also paying attention to the sectoral positioning and long-term development potential of the enterprise, which needs to be judged through professional financial analysis, market research and risk assessment. This also means that sponsors need to improve their review of the sector positioning, issuance conditions, and standardization of the company to be listed.
Second, the sponsor institution should actively respond to the requirements of the new "National Nine Articles", strengthen the continuous supervision and follow-up services of the sponsor project, and timely discover and solve the problems that may arise after the listing of the enterprise through regular corporate return visits, financial report review and market dynamic monitoring, so as to ensure the quality of the listed enterprise; Assist listed companies to improve their governance structure, ensure transparent and efficient decision-making, improve the quality and frequency of information disclosure, and enhance the market's understanding of listed companies; Guide listed companies to attach importance to the cash dividend policy, and enhance investors' confidence in the company's long-term investment through a stable and transparent dividend return mechanism.
Third, the sponsor should provide professional financial restructuring and business restructuring services for companies facing the risk of delisting, or achieve optimal allocation of resources through mergers and acquisitions. Leverage our professional advantages to provide diversified exit solutions for delisted companies, including but not limited to the introduction of strategic investors, asset divestitures, equity transfers, etc., to achieve a smooth transition and effective use of market resources. In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to the follow-up development of the company after delisting, provide continuous consulting services, and help it find new development opportunities in other fields other than the capital market to achieve transformation and upgrading.
Fourth, from the root cause, in order to improve the quality of sponsorship, sponsor institutions also need to continue to improve their professional capabilities and service quality. Under the guidance of the new "National Nine Articles", sponsor institutions need to continuously strengthen internal training, improve the professional level and professional ethics of sponsor representatives, and ensure the high quality and compliance of sponsor projects. At the same time, it is also necessary to establish and improve the internal risk control system to improve the ability to adapt to market changes and the ability to prevent risks.
As a securities operating institution, securities companies should conscientiously study and implement a series of important policy requirements in the near future, adhere to the political and people's nature of the capital market work, take serving the real economy as the original intention, and achieve high-quality development as the goal, better play the functional role of the capital market, develop new quality productivity, do a good job in the financial "five major articles", and contribute to the construction of a financial power in the mainland and the overall situation of Chinese-style modernization!
Editor-in-charge: Luo Xiaoxia
Proofreader: Tang Haocheng