By Monday, 768 companies listed on China's two stock exchanges had joined the split share structure reform, accounting for 56 percent of the total, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Tuesday.

 

Meanwhile, the market value of these 768 companies made up 63.5 percent of the total market value of all listed companies, indicating the once-disputable reform has made preliminary progress, the newspaper said.

 

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. To make all their shares tradable, listed companies participating in the reform have to offer additional shares or funds to public investors as compensation.

 

The reform is still facing thorny obstacles that cannot be easily solved, according to the newspaper.

 

Some listed companies with huge deficit and debts are unable to pay public investors enough compensation to make all shares tradable, it said.

 

Non-tradable shareholders of some companies fear that they might lose control of the companies after the reform as their share proportions are not big enough, so they are still hesitating, it said.

 

The reform of some companies with enormous market value such as Sinopec (China National Petrochemical Corp.) is the key to the further progress of the split share reform, which is regarded by the public as a major way to help the Chinese stock market out of the bearish period.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2006)