China steps up efforts to open up its capital market

Revised rules on foreign investors' strategic investment in public firms

China's ongoing efforts to further open up its capital market, with the latest attempt to ease foreign strategic investment in listed firms, will help to improve the quality of A-share companies and inject more liquidity into the market, said experts.

The revised rules on foreign investors' strategic investment in public companies in China took effect on Dec 2. Under the revised version, which was jointly released by six government departments — including the Ministry of Commerce and China Securities Regulatory Commission in early November — foreign natural persons are allowed to make strategic investments in listed companies. Prior to this revision, only foreign legal persons or institutions were allowed to make such investments.

Capital requirements have also been relaxed. While potential foreign strategic investors were required to either possess a minimum $100 million worth of overseas actual assets or manage at least $500 million actual assets in overseas markets according to the former regulations, the threshold has now been lowered to $50 million and $300 million, respectively, as long as the foreign investor does not serve as a controlling stakeholder in the invested Chinese company.