China’s securities regulator is considering allowing shareholders to sell bonds that can be exchanged for stocks they hold in order to bring stability to the country’s struggling equities market, Bloomberg reported. Such a scheme would be aimed at alleviating the burden on the US$1.3 trillion in state-owned shares that will become tradable as lockup periods expire over the next two years by encouraging investors to hold on to their stocks. Under the plan currently being studied, investors wishing to sell their stocks in a company after its lockup period expires would have to transfer their shares to a third party, such as a clearing house, and could then sell bonds exchangeable for those shares to other investors. China’s stock market has dropped by 55% so far this year, making it the worst-performing market in the world.
Categories