"Supporting Excellence and Strengthening Key Sectors" - Three New Trends in A-Share Refinance Offerings

Securities Times Reporter Zhang Juanjuan

The 2026 Government Work Report proposes to continue deepening comprehensive reforms of the capital market’s investment and financing, further improve the mechanism for long-term funds entering the market, enhance investor protection systems, expand exit channels for private equity and venture capital funds, and increase the proportion of direct and equity financing.

At the Fourth Session of the 14th National People’s Congress, during the economic-themed press conference, China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing stated that further optimization of refinancing review and registration mechanisms at the institutional rule level will be pursued to enhance the inclusiveness and adaptability of the system, emphasizing the “supporting excellence and science” orientation.

Compared to indirect financing, direct financing is a vital way for enterprises to optimize capital structure, achieve external expansion, and upgrade industries. “Actively developing equity, bonds, and other direct financing methods, increasing the proportion of direct financing, and improving the multi-level capital market system” has become a key direction for reforming the capital market.

To continuously monitor changes in the financing ecosystem of the capital market, Securities Times Data Treasure launches a series of reports titled “New Perspectives on Financing.” This is the first article in the series, providing a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the refinancing market, combining policy guidance with market practices, analyzing structural adjustments, and trends in capital flow.

Continuous Optimization of Financing Structure

Refinancing, as an important component of direct financing, is a crucial tool and support for listed companies to consolidate core businesses, optimize resource allocation, and enhance core competitiveness.

On February 9 this year, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges and the Beijing Stock Exchange introduced a package of measures to optimize refinancing, supporting high-quality listed companies to improve and strengthen, and guiding market resources to accelerate toward new productive forces. This follows the regulatory improvements made in August 2023 and marks a structural optimization and targeted easing of refinancing policies. The policies clearly emphasize supporting excellence and science, mainly safeguarding the reasonable financing needs of high-quality listed companies and technological innovation enterprises, signaling a shift from total volume control to structural optimization and functional enhancement.

Tian Lihui, Dean of the Institute of Financial Development at Nankai University, told Securities Times Data Treasure that the loosening of refinancing aims to serve national strategies and reshape the capital market ecosystem. Through “supporting excellence and science,” it aims to precisely address financing difficulties faced by tech startups, shorten the financing gap for unprofitable companies, remove restrictions on financing for companies experiencing “breaks in listing,” and reconstruct standards for mainboard tech innovation. This directly tackles issues such as mismatched capital and innovation cycles and the disconnection between traditional industries and technology. By embedding the capital market deeply into the national innovation system, it guides capital toward “bottleneck” areas, promotes the development of new productive forces, and achieves strategic synergy between finance and the real economy.

Data trends show that the scale of refinancing has significantly increased since 2025. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the market for refinancing in A-shares (including additional issuance, rights issues, preferred shares, and convertible bonds) showed a “V” shape. In 2024, the total refinancing amount in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares dropped to a decade low.

With policies shifting from total volume control to structural optimization, the refinancing market rebounded sharply in 2025, with total refinancing in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares reaching 1.13 trillion yuan, a new high since 2022. Compared to the total social financing data, the proportion of A-share refinancing in Shanghai and Shenzhen to total social financing was 3.19% in 2025, also a new high since 2022.

As of March 9, 2025 (same below), the total A-share refinancing amount exceeded 160 billion yuan, more than 20% higher than in the first quarter of 2025.

Emerging Three Trends

Since 2025, the refinancing market has shown positive changes in industry orientation, pricing mechanisms, and fundraising targets, highlighting the trend of the capital market shifting from virtual to real and serving new productive forces.

1. Industry-oriented “supporting excellence and science,” resources accelerating toward new productive forces.

By sector, in 2025, the refinancing amount on the ChiNext board exceeded 52 billion yuan, an increase of about 60% from the previous year; the STAR Market’s refinancing reached nearly 67.4 billion yuan, nearly six times the previous year. This year, the STAR Market has already seen over 7.4 billion yuan in refinancing, continuing its growth trend.

From the financing structure, in 2025, the main board’s refinancing accounted for over 87%, while the “dual innovation” (STAR Market and ChiNext) accounted for 12.59%. Excluding the large refinancing amounts of 520 billion yuan from the four major state-owned banks, the “dual innovation” segment’s refinancing scale accounts for nearly 28%, the highest in the past decade, with the STAR Market’s refinancing proportion also reaching a historic high of over 15%.

By industry, excluding banking and non-bank financial sectors, industries such as electronics, defense and military, electrical equipment, and computers saw increased refinancing proportions compared to the previous year. Electronics accounted for over 20%, defense and military over 10%, both reaching five-year highs, reflecting strong support for core technology and high-end manufacturing.

2. Fairer pricing mechanisms, balancing financing efficiency and investor interests.

According to regulations, the issuance price of private placements should not be lower than 80% of the average stock price over the 20 trading days prior to the pricing date.

Overall, in 2025, the average private placement issuance price was close to 86% of the benchmark, a new high since 2021; since 2026, it has risen to nearly 88%. Regarding company proportions, over 45% of companies issued private placements at prices exceeding 85% of the benchmark, significantly higher than in 2023 and 2024.

This aligns with the policy of “improving lock-in mechanisms for private placements, promoting prices closer to market levels, and better balancing the interests of listed companies and investors.” Industry insiders believe that narrowing issuance discounts indicates investors’ increased willingness to subscribe at higher prices, reflecting greater confidence in the company’s fundamentals, project investments, and future growth.

3. Fundraising focus on core businesses, guiding capital to serve the real economy and innovation.

According to Wind data, based on the purpose of private placements, in 2025, the scale of refinancing aimed at “supplementing working capital” significantly declined, while the scale directed toward project financing and asset acquisitions increased sharply, accounting for over 55% and 30%, respectively, with asset acquisitions reaching a new high since 2021.

Looking at the overall fundraising (including private placements, rights issues, and convertible bonds), the trend of funds concentrating on technological innovation and core business expansion over the past five years is clear. In 2025, the proportion of refinancing allocated to “R&D” (including information technology investment) rose to 6.09%, a new high since 2021. Since 2026, this proportion has further increased to about 11%. The proportion of refinancing used for equity acquisitions exceeded 37%, nearly tripling the previous year’s level. During the “14th Five-Year Plan,” the share of refinancing for project construction and capacity expansion has consistently remained above 30%, approaching 40% in 2025.

For example, in 2025, Lexin Technology raised nearly 1.8 billion yuan through private placements, with 5.62% used for working capital, about 34% for R&D center construction, and over 60% for projects like Wi-Fi 7 router chips development and industrialization.

Regarding the optimization of fundraising targets, Tian Lihui told reporters that this is mainly driven by three institutional mechanisms: first, rules mandating that supplementary funds be directed toward R&D; second, review efficiency linked to the tech innovation attribute; third, strict supervision of fund use.

He also noted that this shift releases dual benefits: for the real economy, increased R&D funding in fields like semiconductors and high-end equipment accelerates technological breakthroughs and industry upgrades; for the capital market, it breaks the inertia of “financing arbitrage,” encourages companies to value R&D strength and growth potential, and optimizes resource allocation efficiency. Funds are shifting from “blood transfusion” to “blood production,” solidifying the real economy and reshaping market valuation benchmarks, injecting long-term momentum for high-quality development.

“Support for excellence and science” is clearly defined

The refinancing review and registration mechanisms continue to improve, with a clear “supporting excellence and science” orientation. Wu Qing pointed out that further emphasizing this focus can significantly improve review efficiency for high-quality listed companies with good governance and market recognition. The current standards for “light assets and high R&D investment” on the STAR and ChiNext boards will be further extended to the main board, implementing measures such as relaxing refinancing limits for R&D investment and shortening refinancing intervals to better support high-quality tech innovation enterprises.

Data shows that refinancing policies highlight inclusiveness and industry orientation toward new productive forces, significantly increasing support for the STAR Market, strategic emerging industries, and six major emerging pillar industries and future industries designated by the state, mainly reflected in four aspects:

1. Increased financing activity. In 2025, the total refinancing amount for companies related to new productive forces increased by 60% year-on-year, with new pillar and future industries each increasing by over 25%. The total refinancing for strategic emerging industries approached 88 billion yuan, up about 16 billion yuan from the previous year. Excluding the four major state-owned banks, the proportion of refinancing for companies related to new productive forces reached nearly 29%, a new high since 2021, with the proportion for strategic emerging industries surpassing 20% for the first time.

2. Decline in issuance costs. In 2025, the average issuance fee rate for private placements and convertible bonds of these companies fell to the lowest in five years. The average fee rate for private placements on the STAR Market and future industries was below 1.6%, over 1 percentage point lower than the previous year, reaching the lowest since 2022. Since 2026, the average fee rate for convertible bonds related to new productive forces further declined to around 1%.

3. Shorter issuance durations. The time from acceptance to issuance for these companies continued to shorten. In 2025, the average duration for private placements was about 221 days, nearly four months shorter than the previous year; for convertible bonds, the duration also shortened by over three months, especially on the STAR Market.

Regarding review procedures, among the private placement cases implemented in 2025, the number of companies using simplified procedures, including those in strategic emerging industries and the STAR Market, exceeded that of 2024, further reflecting the “supporting science” orientation.

4. Improved performance inclusiveness. In 2025, among companies related to new productive forces conducting refinancing, the proportion of those with net losses in the current or previous year increased to over 57%, the highest in five years. For STAR Market companies conducting refinancing in 2024 and 2025, the proportion of companies with net losses in the current or previous year exceeded 54%, fully demonstrating the policy’s inclusiveness toward tech innovation firms’ performance.

Strong Capital Attraction in Tech Sectors

Besides ongoing refinancing projects, the current pipeline of projects (mainly private placements and convertible bonds) also clearly reflects the “supporting excellence and science” orientation, providing important forward-looking support for the continuous development of new productive forces. Capital is increasingly focusing on hard tech sectors such as robotics, artificial intelligence, chips, and new energy.

In ongoing projects, the number and scale of fundraising by companies related to new productive forces remain high.

Based on the first pre-plan date (excluding halted projects), since 2026, companies related to new productive forces have planned nearly 46 billion yuan in private placements, nearly half of all planned private placement fundraising; they also plan to raise over 16 billion yuan via convertible bonds, nearly 60% of total convertible bond plans.

Specifically, since the beginning of this year, more than 20 companies related to new productive forces have announced pre-plans with fundraising of at least 1 billion yuan, totaling over 50.6 billion yuan. These companies mainly involve semiconductors, energy storage, and embodied intelligence industries. Zhongke Shuguang, Tsinghua Unigroup, and Guoxuan High-Tech plan to raise no less than 5 billion yuan each, with Zhongke Shuguang using convertible bonds, and the other two via private placements. These three are representatives of AI, semiconductors, and energy storage sectors. Tongfu Microelectronics, Fulin Precision, and Jingzhida plan private placements exceeding 2.9 billion yuan each, all for project financing.