① The period of the original plan to increase holdings has not yet ended. The Bank of Xiamen announced an “increase” midway, and the amount of increase in holdings for executives was raised to no less than 3.5 million yuan. ② Under the increased plan, Bank of Xiamen executives will increase their holdings by one-quarter of last year's after-tax remuneration. ③ Six banks have issued and implemented plans to stabilize stock prices during the year, with generally poor results; research institutes are optimistic about the 2024 market.
Financial News Agency, December 20 (Reporter Zou Juntao) Bank stock prices continued to be sluggish during the year, and many banks have successively implemented plans to stabilize stock prices.
On the evening of December 19, the Bank of Xiamen issued an announcement stating that it further reflects confidence in the company's future development prospects and recognition of the company's long-term investment value. As of August 4, 2023, directors (excluding independent directors), supervisors (excluding external supervisors), and senior managers who have voluntarily actively increased their holdings of the company's shares have increased the total amount of not less than 1,3764 million yuan to no less than 350,000 yuan.
A reporter from the Financial Association News Agency noticed that currently in various banks implementing plans to stabilize stock prices, it is common for major shareholders (holding 5% or more of the shares) and executives to increase their holdings. It is worth noting that the Bank of Xiamen rarely chose to link the amount of increase in executive holdings to remuneration. A reporter from the Financial Association News Agency noticed that according to the plan to increase holdings announced this time, the increase in holdings of Bank of Xiamen executives will account for one-quarter of last year's remuneration.
Bank of Xiamen executives plan to use 25% of their remuneration to increase their holdings
According to the Bank of Xiamen's previous announcement, this round of measures to stabilize stock prices originated at the end of July this year. The closing price of the company's stock price for 20 consecutive trading days was lower than the company's latest audited net assets per share. On July 28, the Bank of Xiamen issued an indicative announcement on the conditions for triggering the initiation of measures to stabilize stock prices, stating that the company will formulate and announce specific measures to stabilize stock prices.
On August 4, the Bank of Xiamen announced a plan to stabilize stock prices. The content of the plan can be divided into two parts. One part is for shareholders holding 5% or more of the shares to increase the company's shares by no less than 10% of the total amount of cash dividends received from the company in the most recent year; the other part requires that as of August 4, 2023, the company's incumbent directors (excluding independent directors), supervisors (excluding external supervisors), and senior management actively increase their holdings in the company by no less than 10% of the total amount of after-tax remuneration received from the company in the previous year. That is, the total amount of active increase in the company's shares is not less than 1,376,400 yuan.
According to the above announcement, there is no price range for the current holdings increase plan, and the implementation period for this holdings increase is within 6 months from August 4, 2023.
It is worth noting that the period for increasing holdings under the original plan has not yet ended, and the Bank of Xiamen cannot wait to announce an additional plan to stabilize stock prices. According to the Bank of Xiamen's announcement on the evening of December 19, the total amount of directors (excluding independent directors), supervisors (excluding external supervisors), and senior managers serving as of August 4, 2023, has voluntarily increased their shares in the company by no less than 1,3764 million yuan to no less than 350,000 yuan.
According to the enhanced plan, the amount required for directors (excluding independent directors), supervisors (excluding external supervisors), and senior managers of the Bank of Xiamen to increase their holdings will increase 2.5 times the original amount. However, according to the ratio between the increase in holdings mentioned in the previous announcement and the total after-tax remuneration of the previous year, this means that the amount of increase in holdings of Bank of Xiamen executives mentioned above will reach one-quarter of last year's after-tax remuneration.
Many banks' plans to stabilize stock prices “failed” during the year
As the banking sector continued to be sluggish during the year, it has triggered many banks to initiate measures to stabilize stock prices. According to incomplete statistics from the Financial Association, as of December 19, six banks, including Bank of Chongqing, Ruifeng Bank, Qilu Bank, Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank, Bank of Lanzhou, and Bank of Xiamen, had introduced and implemented stock price stabilization plans.
Overall, it is generally difficult for various banks' plans to stabilize stock prices to have obvious results. According to Dongfangcai.com, since the implementation of the stock price stabilization plan, Bank of Xiamen has fluctuated downward from the closing price of 5.74 yuan/share on August 4. By the close of trading on December 19, the stock price had fallen to 5.09 yuan/share, which is still lower than the company's latest audited net assets of 8.22 yuan per share.
Furthermore, on December 18, Ruifeng Bank announced the completion of another round of measures to stabilize stock prices. On the first trading day after the announcement, Ruifeng Bank's stock price closed at 4.92 yuan/share. Compared with the closing price on the day the previous holdings increase plan was announced, a drop of 11.99%.
From an industry perspective, since October of this year, the banking sector has ushered in a new round of decline, and bank stocks have generally been affected. Looking to the future, most research institutes believe that the current bottom of the banking sector is already showing, and they are particularly optimistic about next year's banking sector trends.
CITIC Securities pointed out in a research report on December 17 that the combination of financial broadening and macro-stability has effectively reversed market expectations for bank stocks. It is expected that there will be marginal room for monetary and financial growth in 2024, so that infrastructure can stop falling and recover, and focus on the role of the “three major projects” in linking infrastructure and real estate. At the same time, the current industrial boom and exports are also showing signs of recovery, so bank stocks are expected to achieve a good trend.
Minsheng Securities stated in the “Banking Industry 2024 Annual Strategy” published on December 19 that the net interest spread is expected to bottom out in 2024Q3, and the expected revenue growth rate may remain under pressure, or it may be completed in 2024; in the general environment of chemical insurance, the rate of bad generation will slow down, or it may continue to be allowed to reduce the strength of impairment measures, making profit growth in 2024 relatively stable.