Nanjing Tanker may become first delisted stock

Nanjing Tanker Corp is on track to be the first company to get delisted in China this year, underlining increasing mobility in a stock market that is undergoing structural reforms.

Nanjing Tanker - the largest shipping company operating in China's inland rivers by capacity - said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it might not be able to turn a profit this year, after reporting a 984 million yuan ($160.48 million) loss in the third quarter. The company has already been suspended from trading after suffering losses for three consecutive years.

According to the stock exchange's rules, if the company reports a loss again this year, it will be delisted.

Before a revision of delisting rules last year, few stocks in China got delisted because companies always managed to bypass rules and squeeze out a profit at the last minute through restructuring processes.

No stocks were delisted in the five years to 2012, when Jiangsu Chinese Online Logistics Co Ltd and Powerise Information Technology Co Ltd were kicked out of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange after delisting rules were tightened. The revised rules included additional requirements on revenue, assets and trading volume. Before that, the main requirements were related to profit.

Although Nanjing Tanker's delisting from the Shanghai Stock Exchange has not been finalized yet, analysts believe that there's little the company can do to prevent that from happening.

"A restructuring process or a government subsidy might save the company, but there's not enough time for it," said Zhang Qi, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co Ltd. Public companies report their annual results between March and April.

Zhang said that a delisting by Nanjing Tanker might be a sign that regulators are getting serious about the new rules.

Xiao Gang, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said recently that "the new delisting rules will be strictly enforced".

Meanwhile, another 26 companies are likely to be delisted this year, according to data provided by Wind Information Co Ltd.

One of them is Chang Jiang Shipping Group Phoenix Co Ltd, which has recently decided to sell 18 ships to raise funds after reporting a 497 million yuan loss in the third quarter.

There's a 30-day transition period after a stock is delisted, where qualified investors are given a last window to trade the stock. After that, the share will be traded in the over-the-counter markets.

Analysts said that a smooth delisting process will help to raise the overall quality of the Chinese stock market. In developed markets, a much larger number of stocks are delisted every year, they added.

In the US-based Nasdaq, about 8 percent of the stocks stop trading every year, while the annual delisting percentage in the New York Stock Exchange is 6 percent.

Fixing the delisting system is only part of the CSRC's plan to overhaul China's stock market. The watchdog has halted initial public offerings for more than a year as it tries to figure out a more effective way for new share listings. CSRC said that the reforms will proceed along a line that better protects retail investors and strengthens information disclosure.