Over 20 Chinese listed companies become first batch to receive loans for share buybacks, increasing shareholdings

BEIJING - More than 20 Chinese listed companies on Sunday announced that they have signed agreements with financial institutions or obtained commitment letters to secure loans for share buybacks and increasing shareholdings.

The announcements came after China's central bank launched a special re-lending facility aimed at guiding banks to provide loans to listed companies and their major shareholders for buybacks and increasing shareholdings on Friday.

The initial re-lending scale is 300 billion yuan ($42.09 billion) at an interest rate of 1.75 percent. The facility can be applied to various types of companies regardless of their ownership, according to the central bank.

To actively respond to and fully leverage the policy tool introduced by the relevant regulatory body for supporting share buybacks, the company on Oct 19 signed a credit agreement with the Bank of China to obtain a credit line of no more than 900 million yuan, which will be used for the company's share buybacks in the A-share market, Sinopec said in an online statement published Sunday.

Sinopec also revealed that its controlling shareholder China Petrochemical Corporation signed an agreement with the bank to obtain a credit line of 700 million yuan. This funding will be used by the corporation to increase its shareholdings in Sinopec within the A-share market.

Other companies that have announced plans to secure loans for share buybacks or increasing shareholdings include China Merchants Port Group Co Ltd and Sinotrans Limited.

The re-lending facility offers low-cost funds to financial institutions, which in turn helps to reduce the financing costs for listed companies and major shareholders, said Tian Lihui, head of the Institute of Finance and Development at Nankai University.

It also helps enhance the inherent stability of China's capital market, maintain the stable operation of the market and boost market confidence, Tian added.