IPO "Barrier Lake" Or Reappearance

On December 8, Shanghai Hejing silicon materials Co., Ltd., seccess Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and Esso Information Co., Ltd., which originally planned to impact the listing on the science and technology innovation board, unanimously chose to give up and voluntarily withdrew their applications for listing on the stock exchange.

Like the above three enterprises, Hefei Dongfang Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd. and new Zhongguan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., which are seeking to be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's gem, also withdrew their applications for listing on the same day.

It is rare that five companies withdraw their IPO applications within one day. According to wind data, in the fourth quarter of this year alone, there were 23 enterprises that terminated the audit in the IPO process, accounting for 43.40% of the total number of the whole year.

On the other hand, since September 4, the number of approvals issued by the CSRC every week is also single digit. In the first week of December, only 10 enterprises received the approval.

"The pace of listing has slowed down and the audit process has become a common feeling of securities firms, investment institutions and enterprises in the interview.

Information map.

IPO audit strictly control entrance

"This feeling has been for two months," said an investment banking staff member of a large domestic securities firm in response to the slowing down of IPO market listing pace and stricter audit.

According to wind statistics, up to now, there are 23 enterprises that have terminated the audit in the process of IPO in the fourth quarter of this year. In contrast, 18 companies proposed to be listed terminated the audit in the third quarter, compared with 12 in the first half of the year.

"Most of these termination reviews are voluntary withdrawal of applications by enterprises, but the so-called voluntary withdrawal is often forced." According to the above-mentioned investment bank personnel, the recent decision of issuing enterprises to withdraw voluntarily may be due to the change of business environment or situation, which may lead to the failure to meet the issuance conditions, the reporting or supervision of on-site inspection or supervision found major problems, or some problems in the audit process can not be reasonably explained.

"On the whole, the SFC and the stock exchange have conveyed to us the attitude of" opening up the entrance on the one hand and tightening the supervision on the other "to strictly control the entrance There are domestic small and medium-sized securities investment banks related responsible person said.

It is worth mentioning that recently, there is a market rumor that "Shenzhen Stock Exchange provides window guidance to many investment banks and requires that the net profit of the enterprises to be declared in the near future shall not be less than 50 million yuan", while the previous index was the sum of the net profits of the past two years to reach 50 million yuan.

However, they did not receive the relevant business guidance.

"I don't think it's possible. Both those who have just declared and those who have just passed the meeting have less than 50 million profits, so this so-called invisible threshold does not exist." There are senior investment banks in Beijing said.

More close to the exchange, investment bank personnel told reporters of the 21st century economic report that "the news is not true.".

Wang Jiyue, a senior investment banker, said that it was not the stricter examination of the exchange, but the quality of the enterprise itself.

He said that since the implementation of the registration system on the science and technology innovation board and the growth enterprise market, some enterprises themselves do not fully meet the listing requirements of the board, or they are not fully prepared to "rush" for listing, and problems will arise in the audit process. "There are also some projects that the investment banks have not done well, and the practice level of the investment bank project team is not good enough or the practice effect is not good, but the arrival of the registration system has accelerated the pace of reporting."

"There are some companies on the science and technology innovation board and the growth enterprise market. They have issued on-site supervision notices. Before the exchange goes to the scene, they withdraw materials." Wang Jiyue said.

Slow down of IPO pace

Compared with the strict situation of the Securities Regulatory Commission and the stock exchange, the slowing down trend of the IPO pace is more obvious.

"I feel that the speed of the science and technology innovation board and the growth enterprise market has slowed down more obviously. In the past, the science and technology innovation board often issued approval twice a week, but now it is basically stable at three companies once a week. Gem market is also, before October more than six a week can send approval, now is also 3. " "However, after October, the approval documents kept the rhythm of less than 10 a week, and did not further decline," said the head of Beijing equity investment institutions

According to wind data statistics, from October this year to now, 21 enterprises applying for the science and technology innovation board have obtained the approval documents through the registration of the CSRC, while 56 enterprises have obtained the IPO approval documents in the science and technology innovation board in the whole three quarters. In the fourth quarter of the second board, 21 enterprises received approval, while in the third quarter, there were 45.

In fact, not only has the number of approval documents declined by "one level", but from the time that enterprises wait for approval, the slow down trend of listing rhythm is also very obvious.

Take gem enterprises as an example. In the fourth quarter, the average time taken for enterprises from submitting registration to getting approval documents was 59 days, compared with less than 19 days in the third quarter. The successful registration of enterprises on the science and technology innovation board took longer. In the fourth quarter, it took 66 days on average from submitting registration to getting approval documents, 42 days in the third quarter and 47 days in the first half of this year.

For the above-mentioned slow down in the pace of IPO listing, industry insiders said that we need to look at the IPO market as a whole.

Wind statistics show that, so far this year, 357 companies have successfully listed on A-shares, raising a total of 438.6 billion yuan. Both the number of listed companies and the number of fund-raising have reached a new high. In contrast, only 203 companies completed A-share IPO in 2019, with a total of 253.2 billion yuan raised.

"This year, there are 540 enterprises just attending the meeting, and it is not a problem to strive for 600 enterprises. Therefore, at present, the speed of issuing approval documents has slowed down, but the speed of audit end is still the same, maintaining the audit rhythm of 20 companies per week and 80-90 companies per month. If all of them get the approval quickly, it will have a great impact on the market. " According to a senior investment bank in Beijing, at present, although a large number of new shares will be listed in 2020, the overall market index will still run smoothly, "but the supervision still needs to consider the follow-up issues and control the listing rhythm."

The investment bank people close to the exchange also said that the strict control of the audit end can also play a role in controlling the rhythm of new shares. "The exchange often alleviates the problem of excessive concentration or excessive number of queuing enterprises through on-site inspection, because the time for on-site inspection is not included in the six-month audit period. It will mainly carry out on-site inspection for the enterprises listed with declaration conditions and those enterprises that the exchange thinks have potential problems. "

In fact, the IPO market under the registration system has formed a "barrier lake" of a certain scale.

According to the statistics of 21st century economic report, at present, there are 679 companies to be listed in the A-share market, which are in the stage of acceptance, feedback and inquiry, and have passed the examination and approval of the national development and examination commission or the Shanghai Municipal Committee. Among them, the number of science and technology innovation board and gem was the largest, reaching 191 and 302 respectively. In addition, there are 71 enterprises that have submitted the gem and are still in the state of approval.

Wang Jiyue pointed out that at this stage, it is more priority to increase the proportion of direct financing than to improve the basic system of capital market. "The system can be continuously improved, and there is no requirement to be in place in one step, and there is no quantitative measurement index, but the scale of direct financing can be quantitatively assessed. Therefore, in terms of policy, priority will be given to stable issuance rhythm. The barrier lake of registration system may need to be digested by the recovery of secondary market, and it will continue for a period of time. "

Securities industry looks at IPO new situation calmly

However, the slowdown in the pace of listing is not a good thing for the investment banking sector, which is crucial for IPO.

From the statistical data, securities investment banks have reserved a lot of projects for the IPO big year brought by the registration system. In addition to the above-mentioned more than 800 enterprises that have applied for IPO but have not obtained approval, nearly 2000 enterprises are in the stage of guidance. Among them, 126 enterprises clearly declared that they would apply for listing on the gem, 61 companies planned to apply for the science and technology innovation board, and only 22 enterprises in the main board and small and medium-sized board in total, and the remaining 1750 enterprises have not yet decided to list on the board.

"This year, we all want to recruit talents through the registration of investment banks and the number of talents." The senior investment banks in Beijing said.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 40 securities companies released recruitment information of investment banking departments in this year, mainly engaged in posts, including contracting, quality control, issuance and other posts. Among the head brokers, taking CITIC Securities as an example, according to the introduction of its internal staff, including the staff of the branch, after the integration of Guangzhou securities, there are nearly 2000 employees in CITIC investment banking department.

It is worth mentioning that in June this year, the CSRC revised the administrative measures for the recommendation business of securities issuance and listing, adjusted the qualification management of sponsor representatives, and cancelled the pre Qualification Access of sponsor representatives. The most important items in the qualification threshold of insurance agency, the "test of insurance representative" and "experience of Project Co organizer", have also been cancelled.

"Now the qualification of the insurance agent is not as difficult as before. There is no shortage of signature Baodai, but there is a lack of investment banking talents with sufficient experience to lead the team." According to the above senior investment bank personage, most of the high-quality investment bank talents are in the hands of large securities companies, and small and medium-sized securities companies can only recruit large numbers of experienced insurance agents to cope with the expansion of new shares brought about by the registration system. "At the end of the year, if the small and medium-sized securities companies are facing a slow pace of expansion, they will face a slow pace."

However, the relevant person in charge of the investment bank of the above-mentioned small and medium-sized securities companies also pointed out that the speed of IPO listing under the registration system has been significantly accelerated, which is slightly postponed at present, but the overall direction of implementing the comprehensive registration system will not change. "It is possible to control the rhythm of the stage, but it will not" reverse ", and there is still room for securities companies and investment banks to make efforts

Another major securities firm investment bank related head also pointed out that the slow pace of IPO does not prevent the investment banking department from "spreading" relevant manpower in the refinancing project. "2020 is a year of" unfreezing "refinancing, and it is expected that the financing scale of next year will not be inferior to that of this year."