On January 9, Foster announced that the company held the 32nd meeting of the 5th board of directors and the 30th meeting of the 5th board of supervisors on January 8, and deliberated and passed the "Proposal on the Termination of Overseas Issuance of Global Depositary Receipts", and agreed to the company's termination of overseas issuance of global depositary receipts (GDR).
This is the second Chinese PV company to announce the termination of its listing plan in Switzerland after Aiko. In addition, this is the first GDR termination case in 2024.
At the end of 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) broadened the business scope of the Shanghai-London Stock Connect and began to expand the European market to Switzerland and Germany. Since 2022, domestic listed companies have chosen GDR for refinancing, and overseas financing has accelerated significantly. The Swiss Stock Exchange is gradually becoming the preferred place for listed companies to issue GDRs. On March 31, 2023, the "Trial Measures for the Administration of Overseas Issuance** and Listing of Domestic Enterprises" and supporting guidance documents were officially implemented, and the new regulations uniformly implement record-filing management for the direct and indirect overseas listing activities of domestic enterprises, clarify the applicable circumstances of direct and indirect overseas issuance and listing of domestic enterprises, and further smooth the channels for overseas listing.
Despite continued policy support, GDR termination cases are frequent. For example, on September 12, 2023, Tianwei Food announced the termination of the GDR issuance. On December 23, 2023, VeriSilicon announced the termination of the overseas issuance of Global Depositary Receipts. According to Wind statistics, in addition to the above four companies, as of now, there are Muyuan shares, Tianwei Food, Tianneng shares, Chifeng**, Jereh shares, Bethel, Yuyue Medical, Jiejia Weichuang and other companies have terminated the GDR plan.
Judging from the publicly disclosed information, most of the companies mentioned that "the termination decision was made based on the changes in the domestic and foreign market situation and taking into account their own factors".
It is worth noting that, in order to better regulate the overseas issuance of GDRs by listed companies, in mid-May 2023, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the Guidelines for the Application of Regulatory Rules - Overseas Issuance and Listing No. 6: Guidelines for the Overseas Issuance of Global Depositary Receipts by Domestic Listed Companies, which stipulates the positioning, application procedures, application of rules, and material requirements for overseas issuance of GDRs by domestic listed companies, and clearly includes the issuance of new domestic basis** of GDRs into the registration management, and the exchange will issue GDRs to specific targets with reference to listed companies of the program for review. In mid-July of the same year, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges revised and issued the Interim Measures for the Listing and Trading of Stock Connect Depositary Receipts, clarifying the conditions that should be met for overseas issuance and listing of GDRs, clarifying the review arrangements for the corresponding application for the issuance and listing of new basic ** in GDRs, and strengthening the supervision of information disclosure in the whole process.
After the release of the new GDR rules, there was an increase in the number of termination cases. Compared with the previous GDR issuance materials, the regulatory requirements for the application materials, especially those related to the raised funds, have been more stringent. For example, with regard to matters such as the 'penetration' information of GDR subscription targets, income swaps, and the extension of the cross-border conversion period, the GDR Guidelines adopt different expressions from previous regulatory rules, and clarify the requirements for 'disclosure' and 'penetration'. Therefore, it is also expected that listed companies will adjust according to their actual situation. On the 10th, a market analyst believes that from the perspective of international financing, the issuance of GDR in the European market will be an important financing channel for many enterprises, especially those engaged in international development. Looking ahead to 2024, the overall financing scale of GDR will also show a structural upward pattern.
According to the statistics of Flush iFinD, as of January 10, 2024, excluding companies that have terminated their issuances, 23 A-share listed companies have successfully issued GDRs in the UK or Switzerland. Of these, 6 are listed on the London ** Stock Exchange and 17 are listed on the Swiss ** Stock Exchange. In terms of the date of GDR issuance and listing, 9 A-share companies successfully issued GDRs in 2023, 10 in 2022, 3 in 2020, and 1 in 2019. Judging from the above-mentioned companies that have issued GDRs, most of the listed companies in the lithium battery industry chain have been deployed overseas, and their purpose is to expand their overseas territory.
Reporter Liu Yang.