SHENZHEN leads China’s major cities with the number of firms listed on the ChiNext board, China’s Nasdaq-style board of growth firms, according to the latest data from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The southern Chinese city boasts 158 ChiNext-listed firms, ranking first among major cities nationwide. Beijing comes second at 130, while Shanghai is a distant third with only 79.

As part of China’s efforts to establish a multilayered capital market system, the Shenzhen-based ChiNext board was officially introduced as the Growth Enterprise Market on the Shenzhen exchange in October in 2009.

Designed to help “galvanize growth in emerging industries of strategic importance,” this high-tech board was originally proposed by the government in 1999.

The launch of the board was seen as a watershed moment for China’s capital markets, providing new opportunities for investors and an alternative source of financing for upstart firms.

Over the past 14 years, the number of firms listed on the ChiNext board has ballooned from the first batch of 28 to a total of 1,324 so far. The board has more than 100 specialized sectors with many of the companies coming from strategic emerging industries such as next-generation infotech, biopharmaceuticals, advanced industrials, high-end manufacturing and new economy sectors.

These ChiNext firms are based across 30 provinces and municipalities in the country, with Guangdong leading the table at 303, followed by Jiangsu with 191 and Zhejiang at 171.

Shenzhen-based ChiNext firms have outshone the rest with strong profits, high growth potentials and significant technological strength.

Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., China’s major medical device company, is one of the best examples.

The firm went public on the ChiNext board in October 2018, and in the next five years, its revenue more than doubled from 11.17 billion yuan (US$1.53 billion) before listing to 30.37 billion yuan. Its pre-listing net profit also swelled from 2.59 billion yuan to 9.61 billion yuan.  (Yang Yunfei)