On the afternoon of April 19, GF Securities 2024 New Quality Productivity M&A Forum was successfully held in Guangzhou. The forum brought together more than 350 people from all walks of life from government departments, investment institutions, and leading listed companies. Lai Zhihong, Deputy Mayor of Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, and Lin Chuanhui, Chairman and General Manager of GF Securities, attended the forum and delivered speeches.

The forum organized 5 keynote speeches and 1 special round table forum, and invited many senior industry guests to have an in-depth exchange of ideas. The aim was to serve the country's major strategies, promote high-quality economic development, and discuss new ideas, new models, and new opportunities for capital market mergers, acquisitions and restructuring.

According to information, participating companies include Hengjian Holdings, Yueke Finance, Guangxin Group, Guangwu Group, Guangqing Holding Group, Sichuan Industrial Fund, Haihe Industrial Fund, Guangdong Capital, Industrial Control Capital, Yuexiu Industrial Fund and other large state-owned enterprises or state-owned holding funds; Cornerstone Capital, Dinghui Investment, Zhengxin Valley Capital, SoftBank China Capital, Dachen Caizhi, Shenzhen Investment Holding Capital, Yida Capital, Qifu Capital, Wen's Investment and Innovation; well-known investment institutions such as TBEA, Zhongji Leading listed companies in the industry chain such as Energy Storage, Radio and Television Transport, Guangdong Hongtu, Dongfang Seiko, and Zhiguang Electric. Participants conducted in-depth discussions on hot issues of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring, such as valuation logic, new policy regulations, regulatory requirements, etc., and put forward constructive opinions and suggestions on how to optimize the M&A market and promote the optimal integration of industrial resources.

Dr. Shen Minggao, Global Chief Economist and Director of the Industrial Research Institute of GF Securities, Zhang Wei, Chairman of Cornerstone Capital, Tang Zhangqi, Vice President of China Union Evaluation, Wei Haitao, Equity Partner of Zhonglun Law Firm, and Yang Changjian, General Manager of the M&A Department of GF Securities, delivered keynote speeches.

In his speech, Lin Chuanhui said that the central government attaches great importance to capital market development. In particular, the new “Nine National Rules” have been introduced, clarifying the road map and schedule for high-quality capital market development, and making specific arrangements for key tasks such as promoting the development of new quality productivity and revitalizing the mergers, acquisitions and restructuring market. As an industry-leading comprehensive securities company, GF Securities will firmly implement the central government's relevant arrangements for economic and financial work, adhere to high-quality development as the main line, implement the “one Guangfa” business philosophy, integrate the Group's expertise in different business lines based on in-depth research on technological evolution, industrial transformation, and corporate strategy, and provide customers with comprehensive merger, acquisition and restructuring services such as target and investor selection, transaction matching and plan planning to help enterprises achieve large-scale development and promote optimal integration of industrial resources.

Starting from China's macroeconomic trends, Shen Minggao compared the main economic development data of China and the US, combined with the characteristics of China's industrial structure and financial pattern, and pointed out that at present, China's capital market has characteristics such as unclear advantages in listing scale, active mergers and acquisitions still requiring basic policy support, and relatively single exit channels from the primary market. At the same time, Shen Minggao also discussed the direction of repositioning China's capital market in the context of the new “Nine Rules”. On the one hand, it emphasizes strong fundamentals and good market value management on the basis of enhancing the intrinsic value of listed companies; on the other hand, the merger, acquisition and restructuring policy emphasizes strict supervision and encouragement, opening up space for new quality mergers and acquisitions and the development of S funds.

Zhang Wei analyzed the current state of mergers, acquisitions and restructuring of listed companies, such as intensive transfer of control of listed companies and frequent changes in capital market hot spots. In this context, explore changes and opportunities in the M&A market, including reducing the value of shell companies, reducing the scarcity of shell companies, and strengthening overseas mergers and acquisitions. In addition, Zhang Wei also shared the strategies and challenges of mergers and acquisitions based on Cornerstone Capital's own capital operation experience.

Tang Zhangqi focused on valuation issues involved in mergers, acquisitions and restructuring under the new situation, discussed the logic of valuation and the degree of inclusiveness of valuation from the perspective of new policies, regulations, and practical cases, and looked forward to future capital market mergers, acquisitions and restructuring transactions in the context of the new “Nine National Rules.”

Wei Haitao discussed issues related to the participation of private equity funds in the restructuring and withdrawal of listed companies in terms of the regulatory environment for the restructuring of listed companies, the restructuring transactions of listed companies, and the reduction of holdings after the restructuring transaction, respectively. Professional topics such as performance promises and supplements, transaction pricing differentiation, lock-up period, and life span of private equity investment funds were also analyzed in detail.

Starting from recent M&A policy trends, Yang Changjian discussed the difficulties and optimization paths of the A-share M&A market. According to reports, GF Securities has always been committed to providing customers and partners with “comprehensive services throughout the life cycle”, giving full play to the advantages of “one GF” comprehensive service, and has built a relatively complete comprehensive customer service platform.

At the thematic roundtable forum, Niu Hong, head of the capital operation department of Hengjian Holdings, Li Chengbin, partner of Zhengxin Valley Capital, Wei Haitao, equity partner of Zhonglun Law Firm, Li Jihong, partner of Qifu Capital, and Zhang Ying, general manager of GF Sinde's M&A investment department, discussed the pain points, difficulties and implementation paths of mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and exit from the perspectives of government policies, institutional investment cases, industrial integration and empowerment, and legal compliance.

Under the direction of traditional industrial restructuring and high-quality economic development, advantageous industries interact and integrate with strategic emerging industries. As a key means of focusing on new productivity, mergers and acquisitions play an important role in increasing industrial concentration and market competitiveness, promoting economic transformation and upgrading, and achieving strong chains, repairing and extending chains. As one of the earliest securities companies in the industry to host professional mergers and acquisitions themed forums on a systematic and large-scale basis, GF Securities will give full play to the linking, service, and support role of intermediaries, as well as its advantages in M&A financial advisory service capabilities and execution experience, improve the quality and efficiency of financial services, and contribute to revitalizing the M&A and restructuring market and promoting the development of new types of productivity.