By December 23 of this year, fifty-one Chinese central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) had completed or begun the split equity structure reform, Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said at a meeting on Sunday.

At an earlier press conference, Li had announced that 310 companies had passed their reform scheme on split equity structure, including 34 central SOEs.

Further stabilizing market expectation, according to Li, the reform has been smoothly ongoing among companies representing blue-chip stocks, including Changjiang Power and Wuhan Steel.  Promoting the split equity structure reform will be one of the major tasks of SASAC next year, he explained.

Li further urged concerned listed central SOEs to complete their reform on split equity structure as soon as possible.

The split share structure refers to the existence of both tradable shares and a large volume of non-tradable shares owned by the state and legal persons.

For all their shares to be tradable, listed companies participating in the reform are required to offer additional shares or funds to public investors as compensation.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2005)