Since the beginning of this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has issued four policy documents on "improving the quality of listed companies", "strengthening the supervision of listed companies", "strengthening the supervision of securities companies and public funds" and "strengthening the construction of the CSRC system itself".
GF Securities believes that in the context of the phased tightening of IPOs, a number of companies planning to IPO seek to achieve capitalization through mergers and acquisitions, and some shareholders also have the need to exit through the sale of equity; At the same time, there is a strong demand for potential mergers and acquisitions of listed companies and state-owned enterprises on the demand side; Industrial mergers and acquisitions have become a trend, and arbitrage mergers and acquisitions, backdoor listings, shell listing mergers and acquisitions, and "shell speculation" transactions will further decline.
At the 8th Jiwei Semiconductor Conference, some production and investment institutions believe that most outstanding companies have entered a period of downward consolidation, resulting in the valuation of semiconductor companies shrinking, and some mature platform-based semiconductor companies have begun to show a strong willingness to acquire, hoping to acquire advanced semiconductor technology or assets with strong relevance through acquisitions. At the same time, the primary market is also willing to be merged, and the current tightening of IPOs has made it difficult to raise funds, causing the primary market to begin to seek capitalization routes for mergers and acquisitions.
In the first half of the year, 36 companies terminated their IPOs
According to the statistics of Jiwei.com, in the first half of this year, a total of 36 semiconductor companies on the three major A-share exchanges have terminated their IPO review, which is about twice that of the same period last year and close to the number of IPO terminations in the whole of last year.
From the perspective of the amount of funds raised, the total amount of funds to be raised by the 36 companies that terminated the IPO was 38.332 billion yuan, and the average amount of funds to be raised by each enterprise was 1.065 billion yuan. Among them, Hantian Tiancheng, Goertek and Ola shares plan to raise more than 3 billion yuan.
From the perspective of the listed sector, there are 3 companies on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, namely Shenlei Technology, Jingxun Optoelectronics, and Guorong Shares; There is a company on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which is Oriental Kemai. The Beijing Stock Exchange has one company, Nanlin Electronics.
There are 18 companies that have terminated the IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, namely Huaguang Optoelectronics, Huazhuo Jingke, Yatong New Materials, Mega-info Technology, Deju Technology, Huadun Defense, Xinxin Microelectronics, Huayi Microelectronics, Hantian Tiancheng, Mingwei Sensing, Xinwang Micro, Hualan Micro, Ola Shares, Dapu Technology, Xingu Micro, Deyi Micro, Kelide, and Chengjie Intelligence.
In addition, the companies that terminated the GEM IPO include Meijing New Materials, Yixing Intelligence, Goertek, Ruiyuan Technology, Ketong Technology, Kekai Electronics, Jieruisi, Jinghua Electronics, Jingshi Measurement and Control, Han's Sealing and Testing, Hantong Integration, Huimangwei, and Runma Co., Ltd. 13 companies.
Judging from the distribution of the termination time of 36 enterprises, 6 were terminated in January, 4, 2 and 4 were terminated in February, 2 and 4 in April, the number of terminated enterprises soared to 9 in May, and the number of terminated IPO enterprises in June further surged to 11, the highest in the first half of the year.
Judging from the distribution of sponsors of 36 IPO terminated IPO companies in the first half of this year, a total of 16 were involved, of which the number of head brokerages terminated was relatively large. According to the data, 7 IPO companies of CITIC Securities have been terminated, and Haitong Securities and CICC have 4 each; In addition, Huatai United Securities and China Merchants Securities each had 3 companies terminate their IPOs.
Regarding the reasons for the large increase in the number of terminated IPO companies, industry insiders said that first, the guidance issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission in March aims to consolidate the tripartite responsibilities of enterprises, sponsors and regulators under the comprehensive registration system, continue to strengthen the whole chain of checks, strictly punish financial fraud and fraudulent issuance, severely punish violations of laws and regulations, and infringe on the interests of investors. Second, at the critical juncture of updating the financial report data, if the company's recent performance is not optimistic, it will also take the initiative to withdraw the IPO application materials. Third, the issuance of policies such as the new "National Nine Articles" has put forward higher requirements for the declaration quality and information disclosure requirements of enterprises to be listed.
The wave of mergers and acquisitions is here
In the future, the trend of voluntary withdrawal of IPO companies may continue, but in the long run, with the increase of listing thresholds and the tightening of regulatory review, mergers and acquisitions may become a new trend.
On June 19, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the "Eight Measures on Deepening the Reform of the Science and Technology Innovation Board to Serve Scientific and Technological Innovation and the Development of New Quality Productive Forces". The document specifically mentions that greater support for mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, support the mergers and acquisitions of listed companies on the Science and Technology Innovation Board to carry out mergers and acquisitions in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and improve the inclusiveness of mergers and acquisitions and restructurings.
According to the analysis of Guojin Securities, with the tightening of IPO channels and the introduction of the new "National Nine Articles", more and more listed companies are expected to improve asset allocation through mergers and acquisitions, stimulate market vitality, and promote the vigorous development of the M&A market.
It is worth mentioning that as soon as the voice of encouraging the restructuring and mergers and acquisitions of the industrial chain sounded, the response of the capital market landed. On the evenings of June 21 and 23, Xinlian Integration and NOVOSENSE announced plans to acquire 72.33% of the shares of Xinlian Yuezhou Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Shaoxing) Co., Ltd. and 79.31% of the shares of McGonne. And through the acquisition of industry-leading companies, these two companies will undoubtedly create more profits and expand valuations in the segment.
"M&A is actually a matter of your willingness, and at present, both the acquirer and the acquired party have strong willingness and demand." Sun Changxu, general manager and managing partner of Xiaomi Industrial Investment, believes that the conditions are ripe and the wave of mergers and acquisitions has come. On the one hand, listed companies have the willingness to merge and acquire, and many listed companies have begun to face bottlenecks in the development process, encountering some obvious shortcomings and ceilings, and need to make up for shortcomings and raise the ceiling. On the other hand, the primary market is also willing to be acquired, and the current IPO is suspended, and financing has become difficult, causing the primary market to begin to seek a capitalization route for mergers and acquisitions.
Zhao Xiaoguang, vice president and director of the research institute of Tianfeng Securities, said, "China's semiconductor industry is entering a critical node and will enter the era of mergers and acquisitions of "survival of the fittest". For excellent enterprises, whether it is through their own expansion or extended healthy expansion, it is a very good development opportunity. ”
Regarding mergers and acquisitions, Cao Xiang, CEO of Geely Capital, pointed out that the competition in the domestic semiconductor industry chain is more intense, resulting in the low profitability of many enterprises, leaving a short M&A cycle for enterprises. In this regard, Cao Xiang advocated that China should have a more open attitude towards mergers and acquisitions, encourage strong alliances between enterprises, and gradually integrate the domestic semiconductor industry chain, which will help increase the localization rate of chips and form a benign ecosystem.