In order to further regulate the behaviors of listed companies on name change and promote the healthy development of listed companies, as for some listed companies change their names just for catering to the market, SZSE recently formulated and promulgated the Memorandum on Name Change of Listed Companies based on summarizing the regulatory practice to avoid misleading the market and investors.
The Memorandum focuses on information disclosure to regulate the behaviors of listed companies on name change mainly in terms of the general principle, specific requirements for information disclosure and implementation procedures of name change, and strengthen the supervision during and after the event.
The Memorandum has relevant stipulations on name change (including full name and securities abbreviation change) of listed companies for their operation and business development. Because securities abbreviation is from full name, the Memorandum requires listed companies to follow its relevant stipulations during disclose of full name change, if a listed company is questioned by the market or media after disclosing the announcement on full name change, Shenzhen Stock Exchange (‘SZSE’) will require it to make an explanation and disclose it, and may require it to convene a briefing of investors on Easy IR platform if needed to timely implement supervision during and after the event.
The Memorandum requires listed companies to prudently change their names according to their actual operation situation, requires them not to change their names just for catering to the market to affect its stock price and mislead investors, and requires them to fully disclose the reason and rationality of name change and the matching between the changed company name and business scope. As for any listed company changes its name for business transformation, but such business transformation has not been formally implemented or the changed company name is irrelevant to its business scope, or such behavior is just for catering to the market to affect its stock price, SZSE will adopt the following supervision measures according to the situation: sending an inquiry letter to it, requiring it to make relevant explanation to the market, requiring it to self-inspect whether there is any insider trading and investigate abnormal trading activities in it, or requiring it to correct its noncompliant securities abbreviation.
An officer of SZSE said that SZSE will continue to urge listed companies to strengthen the responsibility consciousness for information disclosure to maintain the healthy and stable development of the market.
