【英语财经】中国企业股市筹资规模激增 China raises record equity as US and Europe slump

Chinese companies have raised twice as much capital in equity markets so far this year as those in the US and Europe combined — even as a plunge in mainland markets has triggered turmoil around the world.

The unexpected bright spot, however, is more the result of China’s clunky regulatory process than a carefully planned cash grab, according to bankers, who say that the apparent deal spurt is the result of the length of time taken for approval to be granted — an uncertain process.

Globally, equity fundraising is running at its lowest in four years, with companies in the US and Europe raising just $9.9bn, according to Dealogic — less than half their levels at this point in any of the past three years.

Companies have, however, raised $19.7bn in China this year largely via follow-on offerings, even as the Shanghai and Shenzhen benchmark indices have lost 22.3 per cent and 25.8 per cent so far this month.

“The approval processes in China can be long and some people are willing to enter the market because of the time they’ve spent in the queue to get here,” said Aaron Arth, head of equity capital markets for Asia excluding Japan at Goldman Sachs, who added that executives were also developing some immunity to the volatility.

“In China, once you get approval your hands are pretty tied,” said another equity specialist. “If you don’t get it done now, you don’t know when you’ll get it done.”

By this point last year, Chinese markets were seven months into a year-long rally, yet companies raised just $3.3bn in January.

While secondary offerings — the bulk of this year’s deal flow — do not require quite the same effort with regulators as new listings, approvals can still take months to come through, bankers said.

Last year was the first in five years that Asia raised more equity for companies than either the US or Europe, pulling in $305bn compared with $266bn and $248bn respectively.

今年以来中国企业在股市上的筹资规模是美欧企业筹资总和的两倍——即便中国股市大跌引发全球市场动荡。

然而，据银行人士称，这一令人意外的亮点在更大程度上是中国繁杂的监管流程所致，而不是精心策划的抢钱。他们称，表面上的交易激增是漫长审批流程（一个不确定的过程）的结果。

Dealogic数据显示，在全球范围，股本融资规模正处于4年来最低水平，美国和欧洲的企业仅筹集了99亿美元——不及过去三年同期筹资规模的一半。

然而，即便是在沪指和深指本月分别下跌22.3%和25.8%的情况下，中国企业今年主要通过增发新股筹集了197亿美元。

“中国的审批流程可能会很长，由于等待花费了这么长时间，一些人愿意进入市场，”高盛(Goldman Sachs)除日本以外的亚洲股票资本市场的主管Aaron Arth称。他补充称，高管们也开始对股市的波动性有些无动于衷了。

“在中国，一旦你得到批准，你就没什么别的选择了，”另一名股票专家称，“如果你现在不上市，你就不知道什么时候能上市了。”

去年这个时候，中国股市进入长达一年的牛市的第7个月，但是中国企业去年1月的筹资规模仅为33亿美元。

银行家们表示，尽管增发新股——这在今年的企业筹资额中占大部分——在获得监管部门批准方面不像首次发行那么麻烦，但审批流程仍可能长达几个月。

去年，亚洲企业发行股票筹资总额达到3050亿美元，5年来首次超过美国或欧洲，美国和欧洲分别为2660亿美元和2480亿美元。

译者/何黎