CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. resigns as the sponsor for Top Toy's IPO

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) earlier took action to regulate sponsors, requiring that each key personnel in investment banks can be responsible for a maximum of 5 new stock offerings at the same time. According to external reports and market news, CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. decided to withdraw from being a sponsor for the listing of Top Toy International Group Limited (Top Toy) in Hong Kong due to exceeding the limit on handling new stocks.

Top Toy is a toy company spun off from Miniso (09896.HK), which submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (00388.HK) in September last year, with JP Morgan, UBS, and CITIC Securities serving as sponsors. However, Top Toy resubmitted its listing application on Tuesday (31st), and the latest prospectus shows that CITIC Securities is no longer a sponsor for Top Toy but still serves as the overall coordinator, while JP Morgan and UBS remain as sponsors.

The CSRC previously issued a regulatory circular, criticizing 13 sponsoring institutions without naming them, pointing out that the quality of listing applications has significantly declined, with some key personnel being responsible for "19 new stock offerings." Industry insiders believe that there will be more cases of investment banks continuously delaying new stocks or even having to abandon transactions