That backlog will take two years to clear, Wang, who heads China’s biggest brokerage by market value, said Saturday at a forum in Shanghai. China hasn’t had an IPO since September.

The nation’s securities regulator plans to set up a new system for pricing initial public offerings and may “soon” end a moratorium on IPOs, Fan Fuchun, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said March 6. Listings were halted “because the market needed a rest,” Fan told reporters in Beijing. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 65 percent in 2008, reaching last year’s low in November.

“The decision on who to list, how to price the listing should be given to the investment bank, company and investors,” Wang said. Citic Securities was the biggest underwriter of Chinese shares in 2008.

China’s stocks regulator needs to change the pricing mechanism to narrow the difference between the IPO price determined through bids by institutional investors and the stock price when it starts trading, Fan said in March.

Social stability will also be a factor when deciding when to resume IPOs, the state-run Securities Times reported April 27, citing Qi Bin, head of research at the securities regulator.

The Shanghai Composite Index is the third best performer this year among about 92 equity benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg, gaining 45 percent.

Source: Blooomberg