BEIJING – A top soccer club in China is a spot on the country’s start-up board amid current stock market frenzy, filings made public on Wednesday showed.
Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club, 2013 AFC Champions League winner and four-time Chinese Super League champion, will seek listing on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), which was launched in late 2012 and known as the “new third board” .
Despite the club’s stellar record, filings showed Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao has been losing money. It registered losses of 576 million yuan ($ 92 million) and 482 million yuan in 2013 and 2014.
NEEQ uses a trading mechanism comparable to the OTC Bulletin Board or pink sheets trading system in the US, an easier option for some companies which may instead spend more than a year to get the regulators’ nod for listings on the main stock exchanges.
Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao is backed by Evergrande, a leading real estate developer and Alibaba, an e-commerce giant, which respectively own60 percent and 40 percent stakes in the club.
Chinadaily