Latest news with #CSRC
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
China to loosen IPO restrictions by reinstating listings of unprofitable start-ups: CSRC
China plans to resume listings of unprofitable start-ups on its technology boards in an effort to support the nation's drive toward technological self-sufficiency and roll back curbs on the initial public offering (IPO) market , according to the head of the stock market regulator. At the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai on Wednesday, Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said listings would be restarted for pre-profit firms seeking to trade on the Shanghai exchange's Technology and Innovation Board, also known as the Star Market . The watchdog would also apply the rule to Shenzhen's ChiNext board, which hosts smaller companies. The relaxation came as a surprise to investors after two years of strict IPO approvals by the CSRC, which sought to arrest a decline in China's US$10.5 trillion stock market by reducing equity supplies. The move is seen as a supportive measure for China's start-ups at a time when Beijing is seeking to reduce its tech reliance on the US amid simmering trade tensions. 'Innovation requires alliance among scientists, entrepreneurs and investors,' Wu said. The Star Market 50 Index, which tracks the 50 biggest stocks on the board, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International and artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Cambricon Technologies, reversed a loss of as much as 0.4 per cent before trading little changed. A gauge of the ChiNext board dropped 0.4 per cent. The relaxation was meant to 'better and more precisely' serve high-quality tech companies that have breakthroughs, big spending on research and development, and promising business outlooks, Wu said. A wider array of unprofitable companies – including firms engaged in AI, commercial aviation and the low-altitude sector – could apply for listings on the Star Market before they became profitable, he said. The CSRC would also kick off a trial programme introducing 'seasoned' professional investors to trade the stocks after listings, Wu said.
Forbes
04-06-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Toyota And MIT Research Reveals Surprises In Seeking Pedestrian Safety
Demonstration of Toyota automatic emergency braking system aimed avoiding collisions with ... More pedestrians. Some past assumptions of how drivers interact with automation and pedestrians were found to be far off the mark. That revelation came as results of the 100th research project conducted between Toyota Motor Co.'s Collaborative Safety Research Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab were announced Tuesday. The study sought to discover how to reduce collisions between vehicles and pedestrians, in part, by looking at how they interact and communicate with each other, along with how automated systems and technology affect driver behavior. After analyzing hundreds of hours and thousands of miles of driving data over a decade's time, it became evident at least one past assumption related to driver distraction is wrong—voice recognition. 'We kind of flipped how people were originally thinking about this,' said Josh Domeyer, principal scientist at Toyota CSRC, during a presentation at the American Center for Mobility near Ypsilanti, Michigan. 'We found that not only did voice recognition performance affect the driver, but we found that the visual features of these voice interfaces were influencing how demanding they were, so people would look down to confirm whether the voice system was doing something. This internally, at least, led to some changes in our own system, where we reduced the visual feedback in order to make it more related to driver-pedestrian interaction.' Indeed, the term 'driver distraction' is distasteful to MIT AgeLab research scientist and co-director of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium Bryan Reimer who pointed out there's almost never a time a driver's attention is not divided between paying attention to the road and other actions. He prefers the use of the phrase 'non-driving related tasks,' or NDRT, which doesn't include listening to the radio. 'We are 100% of the time distracted, whether you're listening to somebody, whether you're fidgeting and writing,' said Reimer, during the presentation. 'We as humans, if our attention isn't devoted some places are continually, either externally, visibly or internally, thinking about something else, distracted by something.' The researchers examined 450 hours of driving data to identify 154 hours of engagement in NDRT to evaluate how driver assist technology such as lane centering, influences the decision to partake in those tasks such as mobile phone use, texting, fiddling with the infotainment system, eating or drinking. The results were not cut and dry, and a little bit sobering. 'We're human. We find ways to do what we're going to do anyway. It doesn't matter what car I'm in,' said Reimer. 'So lots of folks out there like saying, this is better than this entity. We find a way. If there's a will, there's a way, which means that we have to think about new approaches.' Then there's the dynamic involving interaction between driver and pedestrian. Using a dataset of 348 'naturalistic interactions,' researchers looked at the importance non-verbal communications such as motion cues and direct eye contact to help avoid collisions. Again, there were some surprising results. 'The first thing that we saw is that glance behaviors and hand gestures were not as important as we initially predicted, which this was very surprising to us, because we expected that eye contact would be very important,' noted Domeyer. He explained there's a spot the vehicle is approaching at a certain rate, where people don't want to cross the street and if the rate is perceived as far enough away they will cross. But there's also what Domeyer termed a 'gray area' where it's about a fifty-fifty chance whether someone decides to cross. 'We actually created the conditions where somebody might look in a vehicle, so depending on the time of day, the angle and other things, and we found that only about 40 percent of the pedestrians didn't actually know where the driver was looking, just because of the occlusion that happened with the windscreen,' said Domeyer. 'So it was very interesting, because our original assumptions about how this communication happened were kind of challenged by this early work.' Test figures at Toyota's dedicated garage at the American Center for Mobility near Ypsilanti, ... More Michigan. At its facility at the American Center for Mobility, Toyota is working on technology to help prevent vehicle-pedestrian collisions. In two demonstrations of such technology, a vehicle equipped with automatic emergency braking stopped short of colliding with a mockup of a pedestrian. In another, newer AEB capabilities were shown on a pickup truck towing a trailer. Having completed the 100th project with MIT AgeLab, Toyota's CSRC announced its five-year research phase is continuing as it continues to seek better understanding of driver behavior, crash avoidance and minimizing crash-related injuries.
Fashion United
30-05-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
Shein reportedly eyeing Hong Kong listing as London IPO plans halt
Shein is seemingly changing course. The Chinese fast fashion giant is believed to now be looking to Hong Kong for its initial public offering (IPO) after plans to list in London grinded to a halt. According to sources for Reuters, Shein has turned to Hong Kong after it failed to get Chinese regulators to approve of its London Stock Exchange plans. While one source said the e-tailer is planning to file a draft prospectus with the Hong Kong stock exchange in the coming weeks, two other sources suggested Shein is hoping to go public in the region within the year. Shein had been pursuing a listing in the UK since early 2024 after previously looking to New York for its IPO. In the US, it already faced opposition from politicians who had argued to block the filing, calling for better disclosure of Shein's Chinese operations. The company then turned to London as an alternative route, yet was also confronted by similar challenges from local market authorities, NGOs and fashion industry leaders. By April 2025, however, it was reported that the retailer had received approval from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for the London IPO, and thus notified the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). While Shein had anticipated backing from the CSRC, a source for Reuters said the company experienced an unforeseen delay and limited communication from the organisation. Further factors, like allegations that Shein's products utilised cotton from China's Xinjiang region, had also complicated the London IPO, Reuters noted. FashionUnited has contacted Shein with a request to comment.
CNA
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Shein working towards Hong Kong listing after London IPO stalls: Sources
HONG KONG: Shein is working towards a listing in Hong Kong after the online fast-fashion retailer's proposed initial public offering (IPO) in London failed to secure the green light from Chinese regulators, said three sources with knowledge of the matter. The China-founded company aims to file a draft prospectus with Hong Kong's stock exchange in the coming weeks, one of the sources said. Shein plans to go public in the Asian financial hub within the year, two of the sources said. Shein plans to change the listing venue as it has not yet received approval for its London IPO from Chinese regulators, notably the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the two sources said. The company, which sells products including US$5 bike shorts and US$18 sundresses, in March secured approval from Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its IPO in London, and soon informed the CSRC, one of the sources said. The company initially expected the green light from Chinese regulators to follow swiftly after the FCA but has since experienced an unexpected delay and limited communication from the CSRC, said the source. Details about Shein's Hong Kong listing plan have not been reported previously. All the sources spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Shein and CSRC did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. A spokesperson for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) declined to comment on individual companies. Before its attempt to list in London, Shein had pursued a listing in New York, as part of its efforts to gain legitimacy as a global, rather than a Chinese company, and access to a wide pool of large Western investors. A listing in Hong Kong would go against that strategy and could hurt its global credentials. Allegations that Shein's products contain cotton from China's Xinjiang region and a planned legal challenge to the London IPO by a non-governmental organisation campaigning against forced labour in China have complicated the London listing and risk embarrassment for the Chinese government, a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter said. Tensions with the US over trade only exacerbate the wariness of Beijing and the CSRC, the source said. The US and non-governmental organisations accuse China of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they say Uyghur people are forced to work producing cotton and other goods. Beijing has denied any abuses. Shein, founded by China-born entrepreneur Sky Xu, says it has a zero tolerance policy for forced labour and child labour in its supply chain. The company moved its headquarters from Nanjing, China, to Singapore in 2022. As it awaited a response from the CSRC, Shein earlier this month dropped the communications firms Brunswick and FGS it had hired to help with public relations ahead of the London listing. "MORE TO DO WITH CHINA THAN LONDON" Reuters could not determine if Shein had sought or received a nod from the CSRC for the Hong Kong listing. The company had sought Chinese regulatory approval to go ahead with processes to list in New York and later in London. Shein's filings with the CSRC make it subject to Beijing's listing rules for Chinese firms going public offshore, two sources have said. The rules are applied on "a substance over form" basis, giving the CSRC discretion on when and how to implement them, the sources added. Shein does not own or operate any factories, instead sourcing its products from 7,000 third-party suppliers in China as well as some factories in other countries like Brazil and Türkiye. The company had aimed to go public in London in the first half of this year. "Shein's listing would have been a boost to the market," said Alasdair Steele, corporate partner with law firm CMS. "However, there was never any guarantee that a single large listing would reignite the IPO market." "The Shein news is much more to do with China than London," said Lisa Gordon, chair of investment bank Cavendish and a member of the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT) - a group dedicated to the revival of Britain's markets. "The London market is in a very good position." This is not the United Kingdom capital's first major IPO loss this year. In February, Unilever said it had chosen Amsterdam for the main listing of its ice cream business. That follows a string of London-listed companies moving, such as online betting company Flutter. Others, such as Shell, are considering leaving as well. BUSINESS MODEL DISRUPTION Shein's business model of sending products straight from factories to shoppers around the world was disrupted by the Trump administration ending duty-free access and slapping steep tariffs on e-commerce packages from China. The "de minimis" exemption allowed e-commerce packages from China worth less than US$800 to enter the US duty-free and helped Shein, Temu and Amazon Haul sell clothes, gadgets and accessories extremely cheaply. Now, those parcels are subject to a minimum tariff of 30 per cent. Regardless of where Shein lists, its eventual IPO valuation will hinge on the impact of the removal of the de minimis exemption, the sources have said. The US exemption is still in place for goods that are not from China or Hong Kong. The European Union has also proposed changes to its duty exemption on parcels under €150, adding to pressure on the business model. Reuters reported in February that Shein was set to cut its valuation in a potential London listing to around US$50 billion, nearly a quarter less than the US$66 billion valuation it had achieved in a US$2 billion private fundraising in 2023. A revival in Hong Kong's capital market, with sizable recent listings including Chinese electric vehicle battery giant CATL's US$5.3 billion float, the world's largest listing this year, augurs well for a potential Shein IPO in the city. Companies have raised US$9.7 billion in Hong Kong through IPOs and second listings so far in 2025, compared to US$1.05 billion at the same time last year, according to LSEG data.
Straits Times
29-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Shein switching to Hong Kong listing after London IPO stalls, sources say
Shein's proposed listing in London failed to secure the green light from Chinese regulators, sources say. PHOTO: REUTERS HONG KONG - Shein is working towards a listing in Hong Kong after the online fast-fashion retailer's proposed initial public offering (IPO) in London failed to secure the green light from Chinese regulators, said three sources with knowledge of the matter. The Singapore-based company aims to file a draft prospectus with Hong Kong's stock exchange in the coming weeks, one of the sources said. Shein plans to go public in the Asian financial hub within the year, two of the sources said. Shein plans to change the listing venue as it had not yet received approval for its London IPO from Chinese regulators, notably the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the two sources said. The company in March secured approval from Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its IPO in London, and soon informed the CSRC, one of the sources said. The company initially expected the green light from Chinese regulators to follow swiftly after the FCA but has since experienced an unexpected delay and limited communication from the CSRC, said the source. Before its attempt to list in London, Shein had pursued a listing in New York, as part of its efforts to gain legitimacy as a global, rather than a Chinese company, and access to a wide pool of large Western investors. A listing in Hong Kong would go against that strategy and could hurt its global credentials. Allegations that Shein's products contain cotton from China's Xinjiang region and a planned legal challenge to the London IPO by a non-governmental organisation campaigning against forced labour in China have complicated the London listing and risk embarrassment for the Chinese government, a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter said. Tensions with the United States over trade only exacerbate the wariness of Beijing and the CSRC, the source said. The US and NGOs accuse China of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they say Uyghur people are forced to work producing cotton and other goods. Beijing has denied any abuses. Shein says it has a zero tolerance policy for forced labour and child labour in its supply chain. IPO valuation In 2022, the company moved its headquarters from China to Singapore for regulatory, international expansion, and financial reasons – while keeping its supply chains and warehouses in China. Shein does not own or operate any factories, and instead sources its products from 7,000 third-party suppliers in China as well as some factories in other countries like Brazil and Turkey. But its business model of sending products straight from factories to shoppers around the world has been disrupted by the Trump administration ending duty-free access and slapping steep tariffs on e-commerce packages from China. The 'de minimis' exemption allowed e-commerce packages from China worth less than US$800 to enter the US duty-free and helped Shein, Temu, and Amazon Haul sell clothes, gadgets and accessories extremely cheaply. Now, those parcels are subject to a minimum tariff of 30 per cent. Regardless of where Shein lists, its eventual IPO valuation will hinge on the impact of the removal of the de minimis exemption, the sources have said. The US exemption is still in place for goods that are not from China or Hong Kong. The European Union has also proposed changes to its duty exemption on parcels under 150 euros, adding to pressure on the business model. Reuters reported in February that Shein was set to cut its valuation in a potential London listing to around US$50 billion (S$64.5 billion), nearly a quarter less than the US$66 billion valuation it achieved in a US$2 billion private fundraising in 2023. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
