[Last updated: 1 January 2024, unless otherwise noted]
Primary listings. The SSE and the SZSE are the primary location where the listing applicant's securities will be traded. For primary listings on the SSE and the SZSE, the applicant must provide the prospectus, listing announcements and other application documents to investors. These documents must also be submitted to the regulators as part of the listing process, in addition to other documents, including accountants' reports, legal opinion(s), statements regarding use of proceeds, commitments and any decisions of shareholders' meetings.
Secondary listings. In cases where the listing applicant's securities are already traded on another exchange, the PRC law requirements are the same as those for a primary listing.
Prospectus contents. The mandatory content requirements for a prospectus are set out in the Standards for Contents and Formats of Information Disclosure by Companies for Public Issuance of Securities No. 57---Prospectus. The main disclosure requirements include:
- Overview of the current issuance.
- Risk factors.
- Basic information of the issuer.
- The business and technologies of the issuer.
- Horizontal competition in the market and related-party transactions of the issuer.
- Directors, supervisors, senior management personnel and other core staff members.
- Financial accounting information of the issuer.
- Analysis of the management of the issuer.
- Business development plan of the issuer.
- Utilization of the funds raised.
- Corporate governance of the issuer.
- Dividend policy of the issuer.
- Other important matters.
Financial statements. At the time of initial listing, the prospectus must include an accountants' report which reports on the last three financial years and most recent reporting period results and, if the latest financial year ended more than six months before the date of the prospectus, then, in addition, an audited interim (or stub) set of accounts for part of the current financial year.
For primary and secondary listings of all issuers, financial statements must be prepared in accordance with China Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (CASBE). The financial statement in primary and secondary listings must be audited.
Typical process and timetable for a listing of a company
The length of time required to list a company from the kick-off meeting to the actual listing depends on many factors such as the quality of the internal records of the company, the due diligence process, whether all requisite documents and approvals are available or have been obtained and the regulatory policy of the government. Generally, except in the case of listings on the Star Market, a very smooth project will take at least 15 months from submitting application documents to the CSRC to completion. Others can take much longer.
The following diagram summarizes the process for a listing application on the Main Board.