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On December 25, China Merchants Expressway Network Holding Co, Ltd. (“Merchants Expressway”) has its share listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange (“SZSE”). So far, the merger and absorption of Huabei Expressway Co., Ltd. (“HB Expressway”) by Merchants Expressway has been successfully completed. Chairman Li Jianhong of China Merchants Group and General Manager Wang Jianjun of SZSE attended the listing ceremony.
The plan for Merchants Expressway’s merger and absorption of HB Expressway was officially launched in June 2016 and approved by CSRC on November 23, 2017. With the strong support of CSRC, SZSE, CSDC and other parties, the companies smoothly moved relevant tasks forward and completed on December 13 the matters regarding cash option and appraisal right. On December 25, HB Expressway went delisted and canceled while Merchants Expressway fully goes listed.
Capital market has been acting as a “propeller” for SOE reform. Merchants Expressway’s merger and absorption of HB Expressway is an important expression of that propelling role of the capital market in boosting the in-depth development of SOEs’ supply-side structural reform and optimizing state-owned capital layout. In addition, the event is a significant achievement of public companies in integrating industrial resources via the capital market to excel, grow stronger and achieve implement their own development strategies. It is expected that more and more reform benefits will be brought out in the SOE reform that takes capital market as a platform, state-owned capital operation as a carrier, M&A restructuring as tools and growing stronger and better as objectives.
According to an SZSE principal, the successful listing of Merchants Expressway on SZSE means that SZSE has made another solid stride in supporting the in-depth development of SOE reform and helping state-owned capital grow stronger. With the guidance of the 19th NPC spirit and following CSRC’s unified deployment, SZSE will center around the three tasks of serving the real economy, preventing financial risks and deepening financial reform to steadily improve the proportion of direct financing, fully play the role of capital market serving SOE reform and unleash the corresponding advantages, intensify the support to industrial integration and M&A restructuring. In so doing, SZSE will power the supply-side structural reform, achieve quality development and make greater contributions to step up the construction of a modern, internationally competitive multi-tiered capital market.
