(Yicai Global) May 21 -- China's biggest battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. has halved the size of its upcoming initial public offering as regulators look to avoid disturbing the weak domestic stock market, according to insiders.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission approved CATL's application to list on China's Nasdaq-style ChiNext board on May 18, but conditions for the green light will put a huge dent in the firm's planned CNY13-billion (USD2-billion) IPO, the sources said.

The CSRC greenlit the deal at the same time it approved Dynagreen Environmental Protection Group Co.'s IPO application, and said the two listings can combine to raise CNY6 billion. Dynagreen is planning to raise around CNY560 million.

Fourteen companies have had their IPO applications accepted by the CSRC in the past two months, but 10 of them have been forced to scale down the size of their listings. Regulators have asked the companies to cut their IPO values because they worry that these massive unicorns might have an impact on the secondary market, an analyst in Shenzhen told Yicai Global.

"By asking unicorns to cut their IPOs, the regulators are looking to strike a balance between the listings of new economy unicorns and market response," said financial commentator Pi Haizhou. "Though regulators encourage unicorns to list, they also need to consider how the market will respond."

Before waving the starting flag for CATL, the CSRC approved applications from a unit under Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's biggest smartphone contract manufacturer and better known as Foxconn, and biopharma firm WuXi AppTec Co., which had to trim its listing value by 63 percent.

Foxconn Industrial Internet Co., which plans to float for CNY27 billion, has not had been ordered to cut its IPO. The firm plans to sell 30 percent of its initially-offered shares to strategic investors, with half of those having a 12-month lockup period and the remainder having an 18-month lockup.

That is not to say a scale down is not coming, one brokerage employee told Yicai Global. "Large IPOs will have a big impact on the stock market and drain liquidity," he said. "Given the concentrated listings of FII, CATL and WuXi AppTec, it is reasonable for regulators to ask them to cut their IPOs and avoid impacting the stock market so much.

Editor: James Boynton