A Société Générale venture in China has delivered a sharp rebuke to the Chinese stock market, saying that it will stay away from initial public offerings because their quality has become too difficult to assess.
Fortune SG – a fund management company owned by Société Générale and Baosteel – announced that it would stop participating in IPO pricing and would also turn away visits from issuers and underwriters until market conditions improved.
The declaration of such a halt is extremely rare, highlighting deep flaws in the Chinese stock market despite numerous attempts at reform by regulators. Weak investor sentiment is also to blame as the Shanghai Composite Index fell 22 per cent this year, putting it towards the bottom of global rankings.