On November 17, the People's Bank of China, together with the General Administration of Financial Supervision and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, set up a stock repurchase and refinancing program. According to incomplete statistics from Securities Daily reporters, within a month, commercial banks and listed companies actively responded, and 145 A-share listed companies issued 148 repurchase and increase loan announcements (listed companies or major shareholders have signed loan agreements with banks or obtained bank loan commitment letters, etc., the same below), with a total loan amount limit of 34.106 billion yuan, involving 16 banks. Tian Xuan, Dean of the National Institute of Finance at Tsinghua University and Chair Professor of Finance, stated in an interview with reporters that with the continuous promotion of policies and based on lower funding costs, the positive effects of repurchasing and increasing holdings loans on improving liquidity and stabilizing stock prices of listed companies will continue to be released. Investor confidence is expected to further enhance, and the market will continue to provide positive feedback, encouraging and guiding financial institutions to provide loans to more eligible listed companies and shareholders. Since the establishment of stock repurchase and increase in holdings loans with fast implementation speed and wide scope, regulatory departments, financial institutions, and listed companies in various regions have responded quickly. Two days after the policy was implemented, the first batch of 23 listed companies disclosed announcements about repurchase and increase in holdings loans. Since the beginning of this month, 112 listed companies have announced the acquisition of repurchase special loans, with a total loan ceiling of 21.33 billion yuan; 36 companies announced that shareholders have obtained special loans for increasing their holdings, with a total loan limit of 12.776 billion yuan. Among them, Sinopec, Hailiang Corporation, and Sinotrans have issued announcements regarding repurchase loans and increase in holdings loans. It is not difficult to see that the number and amount of companies obtaining repurchase loans are significantly higher than those obtaining increase in holdings loans. Yang Chao, Chief Analyst of Galaxy Securities Strategy, told reporters that on the one hand, stock repurchases can directly reduce the outstanding shares of listed companies, which has a more significant impact on supply and demand, and can quickly boost market confidence. This makes the company's management more inclined to apply for repurchase loans to stabilize stock prices; On the other hand, from the perspective of operational procedures, repurchase loans are usually led by listed companies, and the approval process is relatively standardized and fast, which can meet the short-term funding needs of the company. However, increasing holdings of loans involves individual shareholders or institutions, and their approval needs to consider more factors, resulting in longer application and disbursement cycles for increasing holdings of loans, and thus limited scale. In addition, the core of the stock repurchase and refinancing policy is to stabilize the capital market through corporate behavior, and repurchase, as a tool that is easier to quantify and evaluate its effectiveness, has also received priority support from financial institutions. From the perspective of industries (at the Shenwan level), the 145 companies mentioned above involve 27 industries, among which there are more companies in the power equipment, pharmaceutical and biological, and transportation industries, with 17, 15, and 14 companies respectively; In terms of amount, the transportation, light manufacturing, and petroleum and petrochemical industries have relatively high loan amounts of 5.743 billion yuan, 2.966 billion yuan, and 2.852 billion yuan, respectively. Among the 21 financial institutions eligible to participate in refinancing, most banks have provided stock repurchase and increase loan support to eligible listed companies and major shareholders. According to statistics from reporters, a total of 16 banks have provided special loan funds for the 148 repurchase and increase plans mentioned above, including 6 state-owned banks such as Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China, as well as 10 joint-stock banks such as China Merchants Bank, CITIC Bank, and Industrial Bank. From the disclosed data, it can be seen that in the past month, the market participation has been relatively high, and multiple banks have actively responded, showing characteristics such as fast implementation speed, large capital scale, wide geographical distribution, and wide industry coverage, which has played a strong demonstration role in the market Tian Xuan stated that this not only demonstrates the effectiveness, timeliness, and flexibility of the tool of repurchasing, increasing holdings, and refinancing, but also reflects the enhanced confidence of enterprises in the market. It is expected that this tool will be widely deployed in more industries in the future, playing a more positive role in stabilizing the stock market and enhancing market confidence. Private enterprises have strong demand, and large enterprises dominate. From the perspective of enterprise attributes, private enterprises have a greater demand for repurchase loans to increase their holdings. Among the 145 companies mentioned above, 95 are private enterprises, accounting for 65.52%. The total announced loan amount limit is 17.825 billion yuan, accounting for 52.26%; 37 are state-owned enterprises, accounting for 25.53%, with a total loan amount limit of 14.261 billion yuan, accounting for 41.81%; Others include public companies, foreign-funded enterprises, etc. In addition, large enterprises dominate, and small and medium-sized enterprises also actively respond. Among the 145 companies mentioned above, 74 have a market value exceeding 10 billion yuan, accounting for 51.03%, of which 6 have a market value exceeding 100 billion yuan. From the perspective of dividend yield, based on the latest closing price, 31 companies have a dividend yield exceeding 3%. Among them, four companies have obtained repurchase loans with an upper limit of over 1 billion yuan (including 1 billion yuan) for increased holdings. Muyuan Group and Wenshi Group have respectively obtained special loans of up to 2.4 billion yuan and 1 billion yuan for the company's share repurchase; The controlling shareholders of COSCO Shipping and Dongfang Shenghong have respectively received up to RMB 1.358 billion and RMB 1.12 billion in special loans to increase their holdings in the company. Yang Chao stated that the diverse nature of the companies that have obtained loans indicates a positive market response and sufficient supply of policy funds; More than half of the companies have a market value exceeding 10 billion yuan, further reflecting the policy's support for enterprises with certain market influence. Repurchase, increase in holdings, and refinancing tools have effectively boosted confidence in the capital market. Overall, the implementation effect of the stock repurchase, increase in holdings, and refinancing policy this month has been significant, reflecting the precision and effectiveness of the policy in terms of loan scale, industry coverage, and market confidence boost. The policy effect is gradually becoming apparent, and the repurchase and increase in holdings of loans will continue to heat up. As of now, the total cumulative loan amount limit announced by listed companies accounts for only 10.67% of the initial 300 billion yuan scale of repurchase and increase in holdings of loans. In the future, with the promotion of policies and the improvement of loan mechanisms, more enterprises in industries and regions will receive repurchase and increase loans. Recently, multiple regions have announced the implementation of the first batch (first order) of repurchase and increase in holdings loans, and relevant departments have also stated that they will promote the implementation of more projects. For example, the Hebei Securities Regulatory Bureau stated that in the next step, it will work with relevant departments to continue to do a good job in policy promotion and regulatory services, support eligible listed companies and major shareholders to use repurchase and increase holdings and refinancing policy tools in accordance with their own actual situation and laws, and ensure that loan funds are "used for special purposes and operate in a closed manner". The person in charge of the Chongqing Branch of the People's Bank of China stated that in the next step, they will continue to work with relevant departments to promote the implementation of various measures, guide financial institutions to further conduct project investigation and enterprise docking, and promote more stock repurchase and increase holding loans to be implemented in Chongqing. Yang Chao believes that with the gradual manifestation of policy effects, the awareness and acceptance of repurchase and increase loans by listed companies and major shareholders will continue to improve, and more companies will actively apply for loans to optimize their capital structure and stabilize their stock prices. In addition, the continuously improving policy environment in the capital market has provided favorable conditions for the increase in repurchase and holding loans. On November 15th, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Regulatory Guidelines for Listed Companies No. 10- Market Value Management", encouraging listed companies to promote the reasonable reflection of the quality of listed companies' investment value through share repurchases and other means. The coordinated efforts of repurchasing and increasing holdings of loans and market value management policies will effectively promote the stock prices of listed companies to approach their intrinsic value and assist in the high-quality development of the capital market, "said Yang Chao. Since the beginning of this year, there has been a high enthusiasm for listed companies to repurchase and important shareholders to increase their holdings. According to data from Tonghuashun iFinD, as of November 17th, A-share companies have added 1456 new repurchase plans this year, with an estimated repurchase amount cap of 204.09 billion yuan; 759 companies have released 1551 shareholder increase plans, with a maximum increase amount exceeding 70 billion yuan. Repurchase and increased holdings of loans will further support listed companies' repurchases and shareholder increases by reducing the cost of capital Tian Xuan stated that on the one hand, it helps listed companies convey positive signals to the market, enhances investors' confidence in the company's future development, and can also assist listed companies in optimizing their capital structure, enhancing their overall value and attractiveness, and promoting a reasonable return to the value of listed companies; On the other hand, policy guidance will also be used to promote more funds to enter the market in an orderly manner, reduce market fluctuations, help establish a long-term mechanism to enhance the inherent stability of the capital market, and promote the stable and healthy development of the market. (New Society)