Ma Steel Group plans to list and sell 0.0127% equity of Huishang Bank with a transfer bottom price of RMB 15.716 million. COFCO Group and China CSSC are also listing and withdrawing their equity in Huishang Bank. After the "Gold Exit Order," central enterprises are speeding up their exit. Angang Group, a central enterprise, has also started clearing its shareholding in financial institutions.
On June 19th, Cailian Press reported that Huishang Bank was again transferred by a central enterprise and the related equity was cleared out.
On the morning of June 19th, Shanghai United Property Rights Trading Center announced that Ma Steel (Group) Holding Co., Ltd. (referred to as 'Ma Steel Group') officially transferred 1759912 shares of Huishang Bank Co., Ltd. (referred to as 'Huishang Bank'), accounting for 0.0127% of the total share capital. The start date of information disclosure is from June 19th, 2024 to July 16th, 2024.
According to the announcement, the reserve price for this listing transfer is CNY 15.716 million. If the transfer is successful, Ma Steel Group will no longer hold shares in Huishang Bank.
Cailian Press noticed that since the release of the 'Withdrawal Order' of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) at the beginning of this month, state-owned enterprise central enterprises across the country have ushered in a wave of cases of withdrawing financial equity and accelerated their 'exit.' In addition to Ma Steel Group, central enterprises Ansteel Group also began to withdraw from various financial institutions it participated in.
Ma Steel Group clears out shares of Huishang Bank.
According to the listing information, Huishang Bank was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 12th, 2013. The 1759912 shares held by Ma Steel Group in this listing transfer are non-listed domestic shares of Huishang Bank and are not within the scope of the full circulation of H shares.
The reserve price for the above-mentioned equity transfer is CNY 15.716 million, and the corresponding price per share is CNY 8.93. As of the close of the morning, Huishang Bank's Hong Kong stock price was HKD 2.45 per share. East Money Information Choice shows that as of the end of 2023, the net assets per share of Huishang Bank were CNY 8.8542.
The appraisal institution stated in the listing announcement that because the shareholding ratio is small, the client and the property rights holding unit have no control over the investment unit and cannot coordinate Huishang Bank Co., Ltd. to cooperate with the assessment personnel to conduct on-site investigations of the assets involved in the evaluation. After confirming by the client and the property rights holding unit, this evaluation is based on the data provided by the client and the property rights holding unit, as well as the information obtained from public information channels to estimate the market value of the evaluation object.
The appraisal institution pointed out that the conclusion of this evaluation did not consider the impact of premiums or discounts caused by factors such as controlling or minority equity.
According to the announcement, the intended transferee should be a domestic corporate legal person, other economic organization or natural person with civil capacity legally established and effectively in existence, who should also have good business credit, financial status, and payment capacity. It should be noted that the project does not accept joint transfers, and the method of entrusted or trustful way to hold shares is not permitted.
It is reported that the predecessor of Ma Steel Group was the Maanshan Iron and Steel Company, which was established in 1953 and belongs to Anhui Province with Huishang Bank. In September 2019, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Anhui Province unconditionally transferred its 51% equity of Ma Steel Group to China Baowu Steel Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as 'Baowu Steel'). After the transfer was completed, Ma Steel Group would 'transform' into a subsidiary of Baowu Steel.
After the 'Withdrawal Order,' central enterprises accelerate the withdrawal of financial equity.
Ma Steel Group did not disclose the reason for withdrawing shares of Huishang Bank in the listing information. Cailian Press noticed that there have been many cases of state-owned enterprise central enterprises withdrawing from shares of Huishang Bank recently.
In March of this year, COFCO Group and its subsidiary COFCO BIO Chemical (China) Co., Ltd. also respectively listed and cleared out 0.27% and 0.29% equity of Huishang Bank. The decision-making document is a report on the submission of the 'COFCO Group Financial Business Optimization Adjustment Program.' In addition, in December last year, another state-owned enterprise, China CSSC Holdings Ltd.'s subordinate enterprise, also announced the clearing out of 0.0311% equity of Huishang Bank. As of the time of this writing, the above listing information is still available.
According to industry feedback, in recent years, state-owned enterprise central enterprises have frequently withdrawn from the equity of financial institutions, which is related to the previous requirement of the SASAC to 'focus on the main industry.'
It is understood that at the expanded meeting of the Party Committee of the SASAC held in November 2023, state-owned enterprise central enterprises were required to adhere to returning to their origins and focusing on the main industry, vigorously control the increase, effectively optimize the stock, based on the development and characteristics of the enterprise industry, and matching the main business demand for financial services to increase the proportion of financial services provided for the main business. Public information shows that since December last year, many central enterprises have accelerated their pace of clearing out participation in financial businesses.
At the beginning of this month, the Party Committee of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council held an expansion meeting, pointing out that central enterprises should not establish, acquire, or participate in various financial institutions in principle. Financial institutions with small effects on serving the main business and large risks of spillover will not be allowed to participate in shareholding and additional share purchase. The above content is known as the "Withdrawal of Financial Institutions Order" in the market.
From the industry's perspective, the main purpose of the "Withdrawal of Financial Institutions Order" is to guide central enterprises to serve the real economy more and improve resource allocation efficiency, prevent financial risks and real economic risks from cross-infecting.
Public information shows that after the "Withdrawal of Financial Institutions Order" was announced, central enterprise Ansteel Group has taken the lead in clearing out various financial institutions in which it participated. According to the Beijing Property Rights Exchange, Ansteel Group's holding subsidiary Pangang Group Xichang New Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. recently listed 3% equity of Liangshan State-owned Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Credit Guarantee Co., Ltd. for transfer.