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Frankfurt stock market bids for China listings
AFP - Tuesday, August 10
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Frankfurt stock market bids for China listings
Slideshow: Full Photo Coverage: Business & Economy
FRANKFURT (AFP) - – More and more small- and medium-sized Chinese enterprises (SME) are listing shares on foreign stock exchanges like Frankfurt, which seeks to attract companies from Asia.
Like many Chinese businessmen, Zhang Yu does not speak English or German.
But that did not stop the clothing designer and manufacturer from launching an initial public offer (IPO) of shares in his company Kinghero last week and raising 15 million euros (20 million dollars) in the process.
A smartly-dressed group of Chinese and German bankers and media watched as Zhang, sporting an oxblood-coloured tie embossed with gold dragons, struck a brass gong three times to mark the start of Kinghero's listing.
"The gong was donated in 2007 by ZhongDe, the first Chinese group to list with us," explained Alexander von Preysing, head of Chinese stocks at Deutsche Boerse, which operates the Frankfurt market.
"Striking it has become a tradition for new Chinese companies; they like it a lot," he noted with a smile.
A total of 23 Chinese companies now list shares in Frankfurt, five on the regulated markets, 13 on an open market and five others, including Kinghero, under an "entry standard" which leads to more strictly regulated indices.
That is less than in London however, which hosts 48 Chinese firms, the first of which listed its stock in 1997; or the New York Stock Exchange Euronext group with about 90 listed Chinese groups.
"Deutsche Boerse has done a first-class marketing job to attract Chinese companies (and) ... at the moment, the trend is in Frankfurt's favour," said Christian von Dreising from the German investment bank Silvia Quandt.
His bank co-led Kinghero's market listing.
One might wonder why Chinese companies do not sell stock on exchanges in Hong Kong, Shanghai or Shenzhen.
"That would take longer and cost more," Kinghero spokeswoman Zhao-Moll Xiaoping told AFP.
"In China, the priority for IPOs is given to large groups, especially those from the public sector that have recently been privatised," von Dreising added.
"To avoid bottlenecks, Chinese authorities have made it complicated for SMEs to gain access" to domestic stock markets, he said.
Kinghero thus created a holding company in Munich, southern Germany, which owns the holding in Hong Kong that controls the group's Chinese activities, a formula that has been repeated elsewhere in recent years.
The Chinese companies listed here have varied activities.
ZhongDe offers environmental services, Asian Bamboo is a raw materials specialist, Vtion Wireless makes USB keys and Joyou makes bathroom fixtures.
All of their operations are in China.
Germany, however, understands SMEs, which are the backbone of Europe's biggest economy.
"They get a bigger welcome than in China therefore," von Dreising said.
"We feel very good here," Zhao-Moll agreed.
"Deutsche Boerse is very efficient, offers very quick access to the capital markets and is particularly well suited" to fast-growing SMEs, she added.
In addition, "an entry into the German market offers a very good reputation for our brand in China," the Kinghero spokeswoman noted.
Von Preysing of Deutsche Boerse said the Frankfurt market operator was pleased that "Germans are highly regarded in China".
The opposite is not always the case however.
Geographical distances along with cultural and linguistic barriers can create obstacles to gaining the confidence of western investors, the German market executive said.
Chinese entrepreneurs were also "more impatient" than their German counterparts, who for their part are "more precise", he added.
Nonetheless, "everything can be worked out" so that Asian firms can find funding in the West, von Preysing said.
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