China will push more state-owned enterprises to float shares in 2011 and beyond, aiming to increase the percentage of state assets that are publicly traded, a senior official said in comments published on Saturday.
Wang Yong, chief of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), told a meeting the agency would "push forward restructuring of state firms and improve the efficiency of state asset allocation," according to a statement carried in official financial newspapers.
"China will continue to push qualified state firms to list as a whole in 2011," the official Securities Daily quoted Wang as saying. He added that SASAC would look to diversify the ownership of state firms during the period of the government's next "five-year plan" for economic development, which runs from 2011-2015.
The promise of more initial public offerings by state firms could continue to make China a top IPO market in coming years. China was the world's top IPO market in 2010, with companies raising more than 400 billion yuan ($60 billion) in Shanghai and Shenzhen.
A steady flow of fresh offers could also continue to put downward pressure on the domestic stock markets. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell over 14 percent last year, in part because of the rush of fresh fundraisings. SASAC currently controls 1,038 firms that are listed on Chinese and overseas exchanges, the newspaper added. Beijing has been carrying out reforms to the way it manages state-owned firms, with an eye to bringing greater benefit to public coffers.
The finance ministry said last month that it would increase the dividends paid by state-owned firms to as high as 15 percent, providing more funds for government spending on everything from education to the military.
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