CHINESE companies are free to select their listing locations but they must follow local laws and regulations, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on Thursday (10)
“Wherever companies list, they must … respect the law, and respect investors,” CSRC chairman Yi Huiman said.
He also called for closer cooperation among global watchdogs on law enforcement.
A number of US-listed Chinese companies are conducting secondary listings in Hong Kong, as US regulators have threatened to remove them from American exchanges, unless they meet auditing requirements there in three years.
Some cases of fraud by Chinese companies have also weighed on investor confidence in the US-listed Chinese firms.
“Global regulatory bodies need to strengthen cooperation in law enforcement … and join forces in cracking down on illegal behaviors,” Yi said.
He dismissed the concern regarding tightening of domestic initial public offerings (IPOs) by China, citing data showing a 37 per cent rise in domestic IPO fundraising in the first five months of the year.
Chinese regulators had merely tightened scrutiny on underwriters and raised the bar for tech listings to prevent reckless capital expansion, he explained.
In the wake of rise in commodity prices, Yi urged global compilers of commodity price benchmarks to improve the way they make indexes.
“We call on relevant international organisations to set up a more rigid and scientific index-compiling mechanism,” he said.
