Huatai Securities, the fourth largest securities firm in China by net assets, announced Tuesday evening that its board of directors had approved its plan to issue Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) and get listed on the London Stock exchange, the Securities Times reported.
By doing so, the company is expected to be the first A-share-listed company to issue GDRs, a type of bank certificate that represents shares in a company which intends to raise funds in foreign stock markets.
According to the announcement, the amount of GDRs to be issued by the company is roughly equal to 825.15 million shares it will otherwise issue in China's A-share market, which accounts for less than 10 percent of its total capital stock. The company hopes to raise no less than 500 million U.S. dollars by issuing GDRs.
The company states in the announcement that it will use the funds to be raised through GDRs to expand its services both at home and abroad, further improve its business structure, and enhance its competitiveness as well as its ability to resist risks.
So far, it is unclear when the company will officially issue GDRs. The company says in the announcement that it will do so at an appropriate time.
In its latest fundraising round in August, the company issued about 1.09 billion shares in a non-public offering to raise roughly 14.21 billion yuan (2.07 billion U.S. dollars).
The company's latest semi-annual financial report reveals that it generated 8.22 billion yuan (1.19 billion U.S. dollars) in operating revenue during the first half of 2018. Its net profit reached 3.16 billion yuan (459.69 million U.S. dollars) during the same reporting period, which ranked third among China's listed securities firms.
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