By December 23 of this year, fifty-one Chinese central
state-owned enterprises (SOEs) had completed or begun the split
equity structure reform, Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned
Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said
at a meeting on Sunday.
At an earlier press conference, Li had announced that 310
companies had passed their reform scheme on split equity structure,
including 34 central SOEs.
Further stabilizing market expectation, according to Li, the
reform has been smoothly ongoing among companies representing
blue-chip stocks, including Changjiang Power and Wuhan Steel.?
Promoting the split equity structure reform will be one of the
major tasks of SASAC next year, he explained.
Li further urged concerned listed central SOEs to complete their
reform on split equity structure as soon as possible.
The split share structure refers to the existence of both
tradable shares and a large volume of non-tradable shares owned by
the state and legal persons.
For all their shares to be tradable, listed companies
participating in the reform are required to offer additional shares
or funds to public investors as compensation.
(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2005)