China's regulator drafts new IPO rules for cabinet approval

[SHANGHAI] China's securities regulator said it had finished draft rules for a new management system for initial public offerings (IPO) and would submit them to the country's cabinet by the end of the month.

The comments were made by Zhang Xiaojun, a spokesman for the CSRC at a weekly press conference on Friday, The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in December it planned to dump its approval-based IPO system, which had decided which firms would get to list and when, and switch to a registration-based system similar to those used in the United States and other developed markets.

It said it plans to unveil details of the new system by the end of the year.

The system aims to allow market forces to determine the reception and pricing of IPOs and speed up the process for the long line of hopefuls.

China's bourses have been volatile despite measures adopted by the CSRC to curb excessive speculation.

REUTERS