State-Owned Enterprises Going Public : The Case of China

Public listing is a key and unique reform measure for large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. Using a panel data set that contains both pre- and post-listing financial and ownership information on publicly listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, we explore the effects of public listing in China. We find that using public listings as a means to reform SOEs has not worked wonders: company performance in the post-listing years are sharply lower than their levels in both the pre-listing years and the initial public offering years. Moreover, the effects of public listing on performance are not significantly affected by the percentage of state shares or of the total shares held by top shareholders