Alibaba-backed logistics firm Best has announced plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in New York. Best, formerly known as Best Logistics Technologies, aims to sell shares worth USD750 million, becoming the latest Chinese delivery company to go public, according to a Securities and Exchange filing. The fundraising plan came after Best, in which Alibaba Group has a 23.4% share, reported business growth for 30 consecutive months, which could put it in a better position against the five dominant players – SF Express, YTO Express, STO Express, ZTO Express and Yunda Express. The company said the proceeds of the IPO would be used for general corporate purposes. “Overall, the express delivery market in China will continue to grow, but Best is emerging to be a dark horse that will outgrow its rivals, banking on its financial strength,” said Zhao Xiaomin, an independent researcher in China’s logistics sector. “It is likely to make the list of the country’s top three delivery companies soon.” Best, despite posting a loss of USD198 million for 2016, saw its revenue from the parcel delivery segment for the first quarter of this year jump 114% to USD304 million. Best, founded by Johnny Chou, a former Greater China President of Alphabet’s Google in 2007, received USD750 million from investors including Citic Private Equity and Goldman Sachs in its latest round of financing last September. China’s express delivery sector is striving to improve operating efficiency, avoid price wars, and fine-tune services to clients in a USD1.6 trillion logistics market. According to consulting firm iResearch, express delivery is expected to grow at an annualized 22.8% pace between 2016 and 2021 in terms of parcel volume, the South China Morning Post reports.

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) has decided to include China’s A-shares in its MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MSCI EM Index), which – together with the firm’s other indices – is often used as a benchmark to measure portfolio performance. The index comprises about 10% of global market caps. MSCI will include 222 A-share stocks, which only accounts for 0.73% of the weighting of the EM Index. But the weighting could increase further over time if China implements more changes in its market reform. The inclusion will take place in two steps, first in May 2018, and second in August 2018. The inclusion could pull more than USD400 billion of funds from asset managers, pension funds and insurers into China’s equity markets over the next decade, according to analysts. An inclusion will automatically result in capital inflows to China’s domestic equity market, as all passive index funds and ETFs that track the MSCI EM index will be forced to add those shares to their portfolios.

The inclusion is a milestone in the opening up of the Chinese equity market to the world. Following reviews in 2014, 2015 and 2016, MSCI had rejected the inclusion, due to the A-shares limited market accessibility to global investors and restrictions on repatriation of capital. The Chinese authority addressed these issues by increasing quotas on foreign ownership of A-shares and relaxing rules on fund remittance. MSCI then raised new worries associated with the widespread, extended trading suspension of many A shares, which took place in China’s 2016 stock market rout. China then responded by changing regulatory rules and limiting trading halts to a maximum of three months, the South China Morning Post.

“International investors have embraced the positive changes in the accessibility of the China A shares market over the last few years and now all conditions are set for MSCI to proceed with the first step of the inclusion,” Remy Briand, MSCI Managing Director and Chairman of the MSCI Index Policy Committee, said in a statement. The MSCI inclusion “will provide a modest boost to sentiment and flows into China,” said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the U.S. Treasury who is now an analyst at fund manager TCW Group in Los Angeles. “More importantly, it strengthens Chinese reformers that want to open China’s markets. The small index weight looks like a compromise between those asset managers that wanted China in and out.” International money managers can now buy and sell more than 1,400 domestic Chinese stocks after authorities opened the Shenzhen Connect in December, about six months after last year’s MSCI rejection. The first link with Shanghai started in late 2014. China already has the largest position in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, thanks to Hong Kong-listed stocks and others listed on overseas stock exchanges. “The MSCI inclusion responds to the needs of international investors and shows investors’ confidence in the Chinese economy and financial market. We always welcome this,” said Spokesman Zhang Xiaojun of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is rejecting initial public offering (IPO) applications at the fastest pace in four years, suggesting it is getting tougher on the rules introduced to improve the quality of listed companies while speeding up the approval process at the same time. Analysts believe the CSRC is seeking a balance between easing the logjam in the IPO pipeline and boosting investor confidence. They also regard the moves as paving the way for an overhaul that could in the longer term give the market more power over the listing process. By May 19, the regulator had approved 188 listings after reviewing 257 applicants since the turn of the year, “that’s a 73.2% pass rate”, CSRC Spokesman Deng Ge said. It is also the first time the pass rate has dropped below 80% since 2013, when the Commission put a blanket freeze on IPOs for more than a year during the stock market rout. According to accounting firm Grant Thornton China, the CSRC approved 247 new listings in 2016 out of 275 applicants, an 89.8% pass rate. In 2014 and 2015, the pass rate was 83.2% and 89%, respectively. Meanwhile, the pace of listing approvals has accelerated, with the number of approvals so far in 2017 exceeding 70% of the 2016 total. Deng also said the regulator “terminated” 35 IPO reviews and “rejected” 18 others between January and April mainly due to the discovery of “abnormal business operations or finances”.

The possibility of including China’s domestic A-shares in the MSCI index this year has risen to 60%, Standard Chartered Bank said. The MSCI World Index covers equities in 23 major markets globally and has USD2.7 trillion in assets benchmarked to the index. three rejections since 2014, MSCI is set to rule again on June 21 whether it will accept China’s domestic A sharesin its index, but analysts anticipate the real impact will be minor as the resulting capital inflows will be limited in the short term. Zhang Xiaojun, Spokesman for the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said that “China will be glad to see it happen, but the pace of China’s reform” will not be affected by MSCI’s decision. Theoretically, the initial inclusion could trigger fund inflows of CNY79.6 billion, compared with the daily trading turnover of CNY400 billion to CNY600 billion. Actual implementation would not take place until June 2018, and A-share stocks would represent only 0.5% in the MSCI Emerging Markets index.

Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank (GRCB), China’s fifth-largest rural commercial bank by assets, says the USD1.1 billion it is seeking to raise at its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong will boost its balance sheet. It is expected to be the biggest bank listing in Hong Kong since last September, when China Postal Savings Bank raised USD7.32 billion. The GRCB has over 29,000 shareholders, many of whom are farmers, with the 10 biggest shareholders controlling a combined 31% of the bank. The lender’s net profit last year increased 2.1% year-on-year to CNY5.11 billion while revenue dropped 5.6% to CNY15.2 billion. Its non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.81%, up from 1.80% in 2015. The Guangzhou bank partly blamed the slowing economy for the rising bad loan ratio. It intends to price the IPO on or around June 13, while Hong Kong trade is expected to debut from June 20.