Few Chinese firms initiated an initial public offering in July in the backdrop of Beijing authorities' suspending IPOs in two domestic brokerages, according to recent research from Zero2IPO.
The research points out that only 19 Chinese companies went public across the world last month, raising a total of US$2.03 billion.
The number of IPOs in July decreased by 17.4% year-on-year and 64.2% month on month. At the same time, the capital that was raised from IPOs were down 3.84% and 89.3% respectively.
Five companies went public in China’s two main exchanges, two companies listed in the United States, and twelve companies went public in Hong Kong, according to Zero2IPO.
Guolian Securities's IPO was the largest, raising US$457 million in Hong Kong.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission stopped companies from listing in Chinese exchanges during a series of extraordinary measures to halt the rapid decline in China’s stock prices. These measures include forcing owners from not selling their shares, injecting capital into the markets, and setting a maximum trade range for a company at 10%.
Apart from regulatory curbs, volumes are also declining as leveraged traders reduce their positions and new investors enter the market at a slower pace. Margin debt in China has dropped about 41% from its June high, while the weekly number of new investors has shrunk by 76% from its May peak.
