Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    EXPECTED capital market reforms will lead to an increase of at least 60 percent in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) hitting the Chinese stock market this year, international auditor PwC said in its latest report.

    About 200 Chinese companies are expected to raise a total of 130 billion yuan (US$21 billion) on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges this year, in comparison with 125 IPOs that raised 78.6 billion yuan on the two exchanges last year, according to Frank Lyn, a PwC partner.

    Among the 125 IPOs in 2014, 43 were listed on the Shanghai A-share market with a total of 34.2 billion yuan in funds raised, 70 percent of which were from consumer product, service and industrial industries. Thirty-one companies listed on the Shenzhen exchange’s SME board raised 22.2 billion yuan, 91 percent of which were from consumer product, service and industrial industries, according to PwC data.

    “IPO launches in the coming year will increase on a monthly basis at a stable pace,” Lyn said.

    The Shanghai exchange is likely to host 60 IPOs with a value of 48 billion yuan, and the smaller Shenzhen exchange will handle the remaining 140 IPOs with a total value of 82 billion yuan.

    Sun Jin, another PwC partner, said a new IPO registration system, likely to be rolled out this year to replace the existing approval-based one, will likely trigger an IPO boom.

    The securities regulator said late Monday that it has approved IPOs for 20 firms, around double the number it approved on average last year.

    The move is aimed at tempering the country’s red-hot stock market, which gained more than 40 percent in the fourth quarter last year.

    Last year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission approved about 10 IPOs per month, with the go-ahead given near the end of each month.