Beijing has trained its sights on initial public offerings as it widens its clampdown on business. Regulators have halted some listings in Shanghai and Shenzhen. BYD Semiconductor, a microprocessor manufacturer, is one telling victim.
Political survival in China, as elsewhere, involves supporting mutually exclusive propositions with equal conviction. But contradictions are glaring when officials bang the drum for chip self-sufficiency while impeding a financing by the country’s largest automotive chipmaker.
Watchdogs aim to control access to capital markets more strictly. They are probing the conduct of a hit list of investment banks and law firms as a result. The consequence is the reported suspension of 42 listings by businesses that retained those advisers.