(Yicai Global) Dec. 22 -- To further help support the property sector’s steady development, China’s securities watchdog has decided to permit developers to go public through backdoor listings.

Qualified real estate firms can join stock markets by acquiring already publicly-traded developers, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its website yesterday. The decision was taken at a recent CSRC meeting held after this year’s Central Economic World Conference, an annual event that sets the nation’s economic agenda for the year ahead.

The CSRC will allow listed developers to carry out property-related restructurings with listed companies in sectors that are closely related to construction to help support private developers’ bond issuance, it said. The watchdog also said it will speed up development of real estate investment trusts backed by rental incomes from affordable housing.

With regard to maintaining the steady operation of the capital market, the CSRC said it will guide social security funds, insurance funds, and corporate annuities into the market and promote the market growth of publicly-offered pension investment funds as well as prevent and resolve risks in key fields such as private funds, bond defaults, and the exchange of financial assets.

The CSRC also said it will promote the expansion of the stock connect programs between the mainland and Hong Kong, promote the formation of a normalized China-US audit supervision cooperation mechanism between China and the United States, and speed up the overseas listing of platform companies.

China should further deepen the collaboration between the mainland and Hong Kong capital markets to support the Special Administrative Region in consolidating its status as an international financial hub, the CSRC added.

In addition, the CSRC said it will further implement the requirement of equal treatment for state-owned and private firms to spur the normalized and stable development of listed private businesses, deepen the reforms of the registration-based initial public offerings system, make better use of the futures market to serve the risk management of brick-and-mortar enterprises, and assist in guaranteeing supplies and steadying prices.

Editor: Futura Costaglione