Economic Observer Online
By Chen Xu (陈旭)
May 31, 2013
Translated by Chi Yi
Original article: [Chinese]

One of China's leading comprehensive securities companies has been given permission to list on the domestic stockmarket.

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) recently approved an application from Guotai Junan Securities Co.,Ltd. (国泰君安) to list on the local stock exchange. The company has been waiting for approval for a long time.

An unnamed source told the EO that Guotai Junan may not need to wait in the IPO queue like other companies waiting list domestically, as they have been given special permission by the regulators.

Guotai Junan's plan to go public was first unveiled in 2007, but the fact that the company has two major shareholders made it difficult as according to Chinese regulations a securities company should only have one controlling shareholder if it wants to launch an IPO.

At the beginning of 2012, the two major shareholders in the company - Central Huijin Investment Ltd. and Shanghai International Group - came to an agreement.

Huijin Investment chose to relinquish it's stake in the company and Shanghai International Group has now the only controlling shareholder.

In 2012, Guotai Junan's total revenue was almost 7.7 billion yuan and it made a net profit of over 2.5 billion yuan.