Our reporter Yang Jie
On April 15, Bank of Jinzhou announced that "the listing status of H shares of Bank of Jinzhou Co., Ltd. will be withdrawn after the end of office hours today (April 15, 2024)". This means that Jinzhou Bank was officially delisted from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
Jinzhou Bank was established on January 22, 1997, headquartered in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province, and listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong on December 7, 2015.
In fact, the withdrawal of Jinzhou Bank has already been heralded. On January 26 of this year, Bank of Jinzhou issued an announcement stating that the trading volume of the Bank's H shares has also been low, given that the Bank's H shares have been in a relatively low price range for most of the time. The average daily trading volume of H shares in 90 trading days, 180 trading days and 360 trading days up to and including the last trading day only accounts for about 0.00015%, 0.00010% and 0.00007% of the total issued H shares. Therefore, the Bank's ability to effectively finance from the equity market is extremely limited, and its current listing status no longer provides practical financing channels for the Bank's operation.
On March 15 this year, the Liaoning Regulatory Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration issued a reply on the qualification of Liaoning Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd. as a shareholder of Jinzhou Bank, agreeing Liaoning Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd. to purchase shares of Jinzhou Bank, with the number of shares purchased not exceeding 6.034 billion. After the acquisition, the shareholding ratio of Liaoning Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd. does not exceed 49.81%.
With regard to delisting, Bank of Jinzhou said: "It is conducive to saving costs related to compliance affairs and maintaining listing status, leaving room for possible business adjustments. The Bank can also reallocate resources originally used in connection with maintaining listing status to its business operations."
Yang Haiping, a researcher of the Securities and Futures Research Institute of the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Securities Daily that Jinzhou Bank had been suspended in the Hong Kong capital market before, and there was also a risk of delisting. The tender offer of Liaoning Financial Holding Group Co., Ltd. to acquire Jinzhou Bank is to follow the trend, which has laid a good foundation for optimizing the corporate governance mechanism of Jinzhou Bank. It is expected that the strategic management and risk management level of Jinzhou Bank will be greatly improved in the future.
In fact, the valuation of some small and medium-sized banks listed in Hong Kong has been underestimated for a long time. Wind data shows that as of April 16, the P/B ratio of many small and medium-sized banks in Hong Kong stock was less than 0.5 times.
What enlightenment does the delisting of Jinzhou Bank bring to other banks? Dong Ximiao, the chief researcher of China Merchants Association, told the reporter of Securities Daily that the introduction of high-quality shareholders and the optimization of equity structure will play a positive role in the reform of small and medium-sized banks into insurance. However, small and medium-sized banks should give full play to their main role, accelerate the transformation of systems and mechanisms, constantly improve corporate governance, strengthen talent introduction and training, and deepen digital transformation, so as to enhance the endogenous capacity for sustainable development and risk prevention and control.
Massive information, accurate interpretation, all in Sina Finance APP
Editor in charge: Zhang Wen
