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on september 24, at a press conference held by the state council information office, wu qing, chairman of the china securities regulatory commission, revealed that six measures to promote mergers and acquisitions and restructuring and market value management guidelines would be issued. that evening, the measure was implemented quickly. at the same time, the china securities regulatory commission and other relevant departments will issue the "guiding opinions on promoting the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market", deploying a series of arrangements to support the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market, focusing on more long-term funds, longer long-term funds, and better returns, to promote the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market.

"6 merger and acquisition rules" and market value management guidelines are implemented

in april this year, the new "nine national regulations" proposed to encourage listed companies to comprehensively use mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, equity incentives and other methods to improve the quality of development. intensify the reform of mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, and take multiple measures to activate the mergers and acquisitions and restructuring market.

wu qing introduced at the press conference that mergers and acquisitions and restructuring are major events in the capital market. the capital market further promotes the effective allocation of resources by promoting corporate mergers and acquisitions. at present, against the background of accelerated global industrial transformation and accelerated transformation and upgrading of my country's economic structure, it is urgent to play a key role in corporate mergers and acquisitions and restructuring.

in the evening of the same day, the china securities regulatory commission issued the "opinions on deepening the reform of the merger and acquisition market of listed companies", adhering to the market-oriented direction and better playing the role of the capital market as the main channel in corporate mergers and acquisitions. the main contents include six items.

first, support listed companies to transform and upgrade towards new quality productivity. the csrc will actively support listed companies to carry out mergers and acquisitions around strategic emerging industries and future industries, including cross-industry mergers and acquisitions based on transformation and upgrading, acquisitions of unprofitable assets that help to strengthen the supply chain and improve key technology levels, and support "two innovation" sector companies to acquire upstream and downstream assets in the industrial chain, etc., to guide more resource elements to gather towards new quality productivity.

second, listed companies are encouraged to strengthen industrial integration. while supporting the development of emerging industries, the capital market will continue to help traditional industries reasonably improve industrial concentration and resource allocation efficiency through restructuring. the integration needs of listed companies will be supported by improving the lock-up period regulations and greatly simplifying the review procedures. at the same time, through arrangements such as "reverse linkage" during the lock-up period, private equity investment funds are encouraged to actively participate in mergers and acquisitions.

third, further enhance regulatory tolerance. the csrc will respect market rules, economic rules, and innovation rules while respecting rules, and further enhance tolerance for matters such as restructuring valuation, performance commitments, peer competition, and related transactions, so as to better play the role of the market in optimizing resource allocation.

fourth, improve the transaction efficiency of the restructuring market. the csrc will support listed companies to issue shares and convertible bonds and other payment tools in installments, pay transaction consideration in installments, and provide supporting financing in installments according to transaction arrangements, so as to improve transaction flexibility and capital utilization efficiency.

in addition, the fifth is to improve the service level of intermediary institutions; the sixth is to strengthen supervision in accordance with the law.

on the same day, the csrc also publicly solicited opinions on the guidelines for market value management of listed companies, requiring listed companies to improve their operating efficiency and profitability based on improving the quality of listed companies, and to use mergers and acquisitions, equity incentives, cash dividends, investor relations management, information disclosure, share repurchases and other methods in accordance with the law and in compliance with actual conditions to promote the investment value of listed companies. the guidelines clarify the responsibilities of the board of directors, directors and senior management, controlling shareholders and other relevant parties of listed companies, and make special requirements for major index component companies to disclose market value management systems and for companies with long-term negative net assets to disclose valuation improvement plans. at the same time, the guidelines clearly prohibit listed companies from committing illegal and irregular acts in the name of market value management.

promoting the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market

at the press conference, wu qing also stated that it is necessary to highlight the enhancement of the inherent stability of the capital market, establish a clear orientation of returning rewards to investors, improve the quality of listed companies and investment value, accelerate reforms on the investment side, issue policy opinions on the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market, further improve the relevant policy toolbox, and maintain a solid risk bottom line.

wu qing pointed out at the meeting that to improve the institutional environment for long-term money and long-term investment, the focus is to increase the regulatory inclusiveness of equity investment of medium- and long-term funds, fully implement long-term assessments of more than three years, open up the system that affects the long-term investment of insurance funds, and promote insurance institutions to become firm value investors, providing stable long-term investment for the capital market. at the same time, it also guides the multi-level and multi-pillar pension insurance system to interact positively with the capital market, improves the national social security fund basic pension insurance fund investment policy system, and encourages enterprise annuity funds to explore and carry out different types of differentiated investment arrangements based on the different ages and risk preferences of holders.

in addition, wu qing said that the csrc will support huijin investment to increase its investment and promote long-term funds to invest in the stock market. li daxiao, former chief economist of a securities firm, told the beijing business daily that from the perspective of capital increase, the entry of medium- and long-term funds into the market will help enhance the attractiveness of the capital market, improve the long-term investment logic of the a-share market, and promote the long-term healthy development of the capital market. as important professional institutional investment forces in the capital market, social security funds and insurance institutions play an important role in optimizing the investor structure, maintaining the stable development of the market, and improving the efficiency of market operation.

vigorously develop equity funds

wu qing also mentioned that in recent years, the china securities regulatory commission has vigorously promoted the development of equity-based public funds and achieved some phased results. as of the end of august 2024, professional institutional investors such as equity-based public funds, insurance funds, and various pension funds held a total of nearly 15 trillion yuan in a-share market capitalization, more than doubled from the beginning of 2019, and the proportion of a-share market capitalization increased from 17% to 22.2%.

wang hongying, president of the china (hong kong) financial derivatives investment research institute, believes that as an important institutional investor in the capital market, public funds play an important role in stabilizing the market and the national financial order. at the same time, public funds can lead investment and, as value discoverers, discover undervalued investment products in the market, thereby obtaining stable benefits of long-term capital and returning them to investors.

regarding the recent hot equity fund products, wu qing cited the example of the 10 csi a500 etfs issued recently, which were very popular in the market and quickly reached the fundraising limit. public data shows that the first batch of 10 csi a500 etfs were approved just one day after being reported on september 5, and were simultaneously sold on september 10, with the fundraising limit of 2 billion yuan each.

as of september 23, the first day of the release of the csi a500 index, the csi a500 etfs under guotai fund, taikang fund and yinhua fund collectively ended their fundraising, all reaching the initial fundraising limit of 2 billion yuan, which will trigger proportional allocation.

promote mutual funds to reduce fees

wu qing also mentioned that in the next step, the china securities regulatory commission will further optimize the registration of equity fund products, vigorously promote the innovation of index products such as broad-based etfs, and launch more small and medium-sized etf fund products including gem and sci-tech innovation board in a timely manner to better serve investors and better serve national strategies and the development of new quality productivity.

yang delun, chief economist of qianhai kaiyuan fund, also mentioned that as an important participant in the a-share market, equity public funds and supporting the development of such products are of great significance to my country's capital market.

at present, the market conditions are relatively sluggish and the issuance of equity funds has also encountered great difficulties. by supporting the registration and issuance of equity public funds and launching more small and medium-cap broad-based etfs, it will be beneficial to increase the amount of funds and drive the market to generate a stronger money-making effect.

in addition, wu qing also mentioned that the china securities regulatory commission will promote the public fund industry to steadily reduce the comprehensive fee rate. the public fund fee rate reform has taken two steps, and there is still one step to go. the china securities regulatory commission will better benefit and reward investors by steadily reducing the comprehensive fee rate.

beijing business daily reporter ma huanhuan, ran lili, and li haiyuan