Geng Liang, member of the CPPCC National Committee and Governor of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), clarified ambiguous and incorrect assumptions in development of International Board in Beijing yesterday.
According to Geng, the introduction of International Board would benefit both the development of domestic capital market and the building of Shanghai into an international financial hub and would by no means reduce itself into a global ATM machine as some concerned.
Three Major Positive Effects of Int'l Board
"The decision of listing eligible overseas companies on domestic market, or introducing International Board, is made based on the consensuses reached through the Sino-US strategic economic dialogues and Sino-UK economic and trade dialogues. For China's capital market, the launch of International Board will bring about benefits in three aspects," said Geng. First of all, the launch of International Board, a milestone in China's opening-up of its capital market, offers domestic investors a new channel to purchase shares of large overseas companies with RMB, which is by all means a progress.
Relevant insiders also hold that the opening of International Board is especially conducive to the investment in overseas enterprises by investors who are inexperienced in overseas investment and unfamiliar with foreign law and accounting systems.
Besides, the development of International Board will exert positive influence on the construction of blue-chip market, thus promoting the growth of China's capital market. "The ultimate goal of the SSE is to build a blue-chip market, which includes high-quality Chinese and foreign listed companies," added Geng.
Finally, International Board means a lot to building Shanghai into a global financial center. "The listing of overseas companies on domestic market will help pool human resources, capital and institutions to Shanghai," noted Geng.
No Possibility for "Int'l ATM machine"
As to the concern about misusing International Board as "a global ATM machine", Geng explained that under the arrangement that free exchange is forbidden under the RMB capital account, the A shares on the future International Board can't be exchanged freely with the shares issued overseas. Thus, there is no possibility for "a global ATM machine". Furthermore, "the large international companies, who apply for going listed on the SSE, have already got listed on overseas stock exchanges. Their listing on Chinese market is actually a behavior of refinancing. According to internationally accepted practices, the prices for refinancing generally shouldn't exceed those on local secondary market." Therefore, it is not qualified to be "a withdrawing behavior" in terms of scale.
Geng also stated that the launch of International Board would not impact Hong Kong's position as an international financial center. "The support to Hong Kong market instead of affecting its construction of international financial hub by the return of H shares to A shares is a case in point. During the 20 years' development of China's capital market, 60 domestic enterprises went listed in Hong Kong, which vividly proved that the development of domestic capital market boosted Hong Kong market and exchange."
Substantial Benefits of Int'l Board
Insiders hold that the benefits of initiating International Board are substantial. Apart from those mentioned by Geng, there are at least five more major benefits.
First, the new board will relieve the pressure from foreign exchange reserve, which accords with the development transition of national economy from capital attraction to technical, managerial and human resources introduction. Second, the new board will attract overseas natural resources and energy enterprises to get listed in China, thus helping break their capital barrier towards China's capital by counteracting the increase in international commodity prices with equity income. Third, the new board provides a channel for Chinese investors to share the income from business conducted by multinational companies in China while changing the situation that multinational companies can only offer job opportunities to Chinese. Fourth, the corporate governance of domestic listed companies will be improved thanks to the model effect of overseas companies listed in China. Last but not least, the new board will help multinational companies integrate themselves with China' economy to make greater contribution to the development of China's economy.