Optimize Capital Integration, Empower Industry to Upgrade Toward "New"

Securities Daily Reporter Tian Peng

Currently, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and restructuring have become key engines for empowering new productive forces and accelerating industrial upgrading by optimizing resource allocation, promoting industry integration, and fostering technological collaboration.

Taking the Shenzhen Stock Exchange market (hereinafter referred to as “Shenzhen Market”) as an example, since the release of the “Opinions on Deepening Market Reform of Listed Company M&A and Restructuring” (hereinafter referred to as the “Six M&A Policies”), activity in Shenzhen’s M&A and restructuring has increased: industry integration has become mainstream, effectively promoting listed companies to focus on core businesses and improve quality and efficiency; strategic restructuring accelerates transformation, helping companies break growth bottlenecks and deploy new productive forces; cross-border integration steadily advances, supporting companies in precise supply chain replenishment and expanding global presence, with a clear orientation toward serving the real economy, empowering industrial upgrading, and technological innovation.

The 2026 “Government Work Report” proposed to “strengthen financial services across the entire chain and lifecycle of technological innovation, and implement a ‘green channel’ mechanism for listing financing and M&A restructuring for key core technology enterprises on a regular basis, supporting innovation through technological finance.” This provides a practical path for the capital market to use M&A and restructuring to support technological independence and self-reliance, and to cultivate and grow new productive forces.

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange stated that moving forward, it will thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the National Two Sessions, continue to carry out the arrangements of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), fully leverage platform functions, optimize regulatory services, gather market forces, and accelerate the landing of more benchmark restructuring projects to further support listed companies in optimizing and strengthening through M&A and restructuring. Additionally, efforts will be increased to crack down on illegal activities such as insider trading and利益输送 (benefit transfer), effectively enhancing the effectiveness of market reform in M&A and restructuring.

Shenzhen Market’s M&A Volume and Quality Rise Together, Helping Companies Embrace the “New”

Since the implementation of the “Six M&A Policies” in September 2024, positive signals have continued to be released in the capital market regarding M&A and restructuring policies. Under policy support, Shenzhen’s M&A and restructuring market has shown a good trend of both volume and quality, effectively helping listed companies focus on core businesses, optimize resource allocation, and accelerate transformation into new industries, new tracks, and new driving forces.

For example, in 2025, data shows that Shenzhen disclosed 1,317 new M&A and restructuring deals, a 48% increase year-on-year, including 114 major asset reorganizations, a 52% increase. Market activity has significantly increased.

Behind the steady growth in numbers is also a simultaneous improvement in the quality of restructuring. On one hand, M&A within the same industry and upstream/downstream industries has become mainstream, with clear industry logic focused on transformation, upgrading, and enhancing core competitiveness. For instance, China Resources Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. acquired control of Tasly Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., improving its pharmaceutical layout and integrating star products like Fufang Danshen Dropping Pills, which helps strengthen the company’s pipeline of innovative traditional Chinese medicine products, forming channels that complement OTC terminals and hospital networks, further consolidating its leading position in the Chinese medicine industry.

On the other hand, listed companies actively pursue cross-industry M&A that aligns with commercial logic, accelerating their transition to new productive forces. For example, Huilv Eco-Tech Group Co., Ltd. acquired Wuhan Junheng Technology Co., Ltd., creating a “garden engineering + optical communication” dual-drive model, transforming from traditional engineering to high-end manufacturing, and expanding new growth space for the company.

Additionally, Shenzhen companies’ cross-border M&A is shifting toward “precise supply chain replenishment” and “global deployment,” by acquiring overseas niche industry “hidden champions,” to accumulate core technologies and expand overseas channels. For example, Wanxiang Qianchao Co., Ltd. plans to acquire 100% equity of Wanxiang America Corp. through issuing shares and cash payments, further strengthening its competitiveness in high-end auto parts and improving its international supply chain layout.

Jin Li, Vice President of Southern University of Science and Technology, told Securities Daily that to further leverage M&A and restructuring to serve the real economy, it is necessary to deepen “chain master” collaboration and promote precise capital deployment along the industrial chain. Exchanges should actively connect with key industry chain “chain master” enterprises, fully utilize their hub roles: supporting “chain masters” to leverage M&A tools to integrate upstream and downstream resources, driving overall industry chain quality and upgrade; and accelerating the construction of “industry chain + capital circle” maps, guiding capital to weak links and key core technology fields within the industry chain, better serving the development of a modern industrial system.

Policy and Supervision Co-Drive, Continuous Optimization of the M&A Ecosystem

In fact, Shenzhen’s active M&A and restructuring are inseparable from top-level policy guidance and continuous empowerment, as well as the optimization and upgrading of regulatory services and efficient safeguards. The combined efforts of these factors create a regulated, transparent, efficient, and vibrant M&A ecosystem, providing solid support for industrial integration, transformation, and the deployment of new productive forces.

For example, the “Six M&A Policies” state that “support private equity funds to lawfully acquire listed companies for the purpose of industry integration.” This allows private equity funds to leverage their advantages to empower listed companies, and also to use the platform of listed companies to facilitate the “fundraising, investment, management, and exit” cycle.

Meanwhile, regulatory agencies continue to optimize services, focusing on market concerns such as regulatory standards and review efficiency, improving review mechanisms, and strengthening service guidance to support listed companies in conducting M&A and restructuring efficiently and in compliance.

Taking Shenzhen Stock Exchange as an example: first, establishing a sound fast-track review mechanism, including classified review, small-amount quick review, and simplified review, streamlining procedures to help qualified restructuring projects enter the “fast lane.” Second, appropriately increasing regulatory tolerance, implementing requirements for acquiring unprofitable assets, cross-industry M&A, and diversified valuation, giving more discretion to the market. Third, improving review efficiency: in 2025, 45 M&A deals were accepted, a 309% increase; 16 were approved, a 100% increase, with the average time from acceptance to review committee approval shortened by 25%. Fourth, continuously conducting training and exchanges, cooperating with local CSRC bureaus and listed company associations, hosting “Rejuvenating M&A and Restructuring” activities to explain policies and scheme design, better serving market needs.

Looking ahead, Jin Li believes that tailored institutional support should be provided according to companies’ stages—from startup and growth to maturity. For example, in M&A and restructuring, for companies in the technological breakthrough phase, more emphasis should be placed on technological complementarity rather than short-term profit enhancement, so that the system truly becomes a booster for enterprise growth.