(Yicai) Jan. 24 -- China's manager of assets owned by the central government will start evaluating business leaders based on stock market performance to align stakeholder interests.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council will guide chiefs of state-owned enterprises to pay more attention to listed units' market performance, Xie Xiaobing, head of the SASAC's property rights administration bureau, said at a press conference today. It will urge them to convey confidence to investors through market-oriented means such as increasing holdings and share repurchases promptly, stabilizing expectations, and increasing cash dividends to give investors better returns, he added.

Last year, 12 listed companies owned by central enterprises conducted stock buybacks while major shareholders of 32 companies increased their holdings, and 20 firms distributed interim dividends worth close to CNY80 billion (USD11.2 billion), per Xie.

As of Sept. 30, 2023, China had 98 firms directly managed by the SASAC. They owned more than 380 companies with assets worth CNY53 trillion (USD7.4 trillion). These firms' net profits tallied CNY1.1 trillion (USD153.4 billion) in the first three quarters of last year, and their revenues amounted to CNY18.6 trillion, Xie added.

The official pointed out that central enterprises continue delivering high-quality initial public offerings. Among the 21 central SOEs that went public in recent years, 14 are listed on Shanghai's Star Market, a Nasdaq-like board for high-tech startups. Moreover, about 40 percent of the more than 380 listed firms are engaged in emerging industries, he said.

SOEs tend to inject high-quality assets into their listed arms as such public firms absorbed more than CNY300 billion (USD41.8 billion) of assets in the past two years, Xie concluded.

Editor: Emmi Laine