CHINA Chinese brokerages, having listed companies producing everything from medicine to cement, are taking the logical next step: going public themselves. Everbright Securities, the country’s 11th biggest by assets, plans to raise up to $1.6bn in what would be the sector’s first initial public offering in seven years. Lining up behind it are two more brokers, China Merchants Securities and Industrial Securities.
Why not? Markets are hot and new share issues – restarted last month after Beijing lifted a 10-month moratorium – are being gobbled up. Booming business has further burnished the brokers’ credentials. Turnover on the Shanghai stock exchange has quadrupled since last August. While the benchmark Shanghai Composite index has risen 90 per cent this year, the brokerage business has run even further ahead. Citic Securities, the industry’s listed giant, has seen its shares rise 112 per cent.
