The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has said large SOEs do not necessarily need to list the whole group, a suggestion that could dampen enthusiasm for listing corporations in their entirety and investors for such listings.

 

Li Wei, vice-minister of the SASAC, which supervises 155 large State-owned enterprises, said yesterday at a conference on public listing of group companies that such listings should only be done at a proper time and by proper means.

 

This could be a new signal from the SASAC to cool down the expectations on listing group companies, said market analysts.

 

Six subsidiaries of large SOEs yesterday issued statements saying their parent corporations do not have plans to float shares of the groups at least in the next three months.

 

Cheng Weiqing, chief investment strategy analyst with CITIC Securities, said one purpose of the conference might have been to cool down the expectations from SOEs as well as investors.

 

When PetroChina, the largest oil company in China, floated its shares in Shanghai on Monday, it took in 3.37 trillion yuan from investors. But the oil giant has also dragged down the market, with worries about its high stock price.

 

(China Daily November 9, 2007)