Regulator tightens private equity placement rules

    CHINA’S securities regulator has asked firms to curb the use of borrowed money when participating in secondary private equity placements, China Securities Journal reported yesterday, citing anonymous investment banking sources.

    In a recent training session given by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), firms were given “window guidance” that any firm owning 5 percent or more of a company should not use money raised through wealth management platforms or other third party fundraising platforms to subscribe. In addition, the CSRC indicated that firms should limit the use of banking facilities to their intended use.

    Peak Sport chairman to take firm private

    THE chairman of Peak Sport Products, which sponsors several U.S. basketball teams, plans to the take the company private for around US$310 million, saying the sportswear maker’s weak share performance had hurt its reputation.

    Peak Sport flagged earlier this year that it might be taken private, joining a growing queue of mainland firms looking to exit Hong Kong’s stock market. A firm owned by Chairman Xu Jingnan is offering HK$2.60 (US$0.34) per share, a 10.6 percent premium over Peak Sport’s last trading price, to buy all the shares not owned by Xu or firms he controls, the company said in a filing. Xu already controls 61 percent of the company.

    China Film to raise US$625m in IPO

    CHINA Film Co., the nation’s largest movie distributor, plans to raise 4.2 billion yuan (US$625 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai to fund movie production and cinema investments.

    The unit of China Film Group Corp. plans to sell as many as 467 million shares at 8.92 yuan each, valuing the company at 16.7 billion yuan, the company said yesterday.

    IMF sets new SDR calculation method

    THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday said it adopted a new methodology for calculating the currency amounts in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) the fund uses for transactions, partly to ensure that China’s yuan meets the IMF Board’s intended weighting.

    The changes will apply to a historic rebalancing of the SDR basket Oct. 1 to include the yuan for the first time, a step that gives China prized reserve currency status and moves the yuan a step closer to being freely usable internationally.