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11-07-2015, 08:31 PM
Why I won’t invest in China’s stockmarket: lack of transparency
ROGER MONTGOMERY THE AUSTRALIAN JULY 11, 2015 12:00AM
The year to June witnessed enormous variation in sharemarket returns.
The Australian All Ordinaries Index recorded a miserly 1.3 per cent return, excluding dividends. The Shanghai Composite Index was easily the best performing major market with a return of 108.8 per cent.
That excitement, which saw the Chinese market up 152 per cent at its peak, was driven by a lot of leverage (that is, investors borrowing to finance their share investments).
I previously have pointed out individual names selling on nose-bleeding multiples.
The 30 per cent decline in the past month has seen $US3.2 trillion ($4.3 trillion) of value, or more than two times the total value of the Australian sharemarket, wiped out.
Given most small Chinese investors who undertake margin lending joined the market near its peak, there is a fear this decline will transmit into the real economy.
Making matters worse, more than a quarter of the companies, representing one-third of the market capitalisation, listed on the main exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen have had their stock suspended, something usually reserved for significant imminent announcements.
The “risk off” bet (the decision of many Chinese investors to sell at the same time) has translated into a recent sharp decline in iron ore, down 26 per cent to about $US45 a tonne; oil, down 12 per cent to $US52/bbl and copper, down 7 per cent to $US2.44 a pound.
Investors lucky or insightful enough to get their money offshore have just witnessed the Australian dollar hitting six-year lows at sub US74c. On the downside, that trip to Aspen just got a bit more expensive.
The objective of the recently launched Montgomery Global Fund is to purchase a portfolio of 15-30 high-quality companies, with good prospects at a discount to their estimated intrinsic value, and if there are insufficient companies that appeal, then allow the cash component of the portfolio to build.
To run such a fund you need to be absolutely sure of the numbers that you work with. Excess volatility also does not make the job any easier. Some investors will take heart at the ‘rebound’ we saw at the end of the week in the Chinese share market with a 6 per cent jump in a single session.
But the fund does not and is unlikely ever to own any Chinese listed companies.
The issue I have is one of transparency and that has a lot to do with the audit process and the hurdles foreign auditors face when trying to assess Chinese companies.
Such financial and business information has been categorised by the Chinese government as state secrets, so cannot be turned over to foreigners.
The “big four” auditing firms do not operate in mainland China. Instead, they essentially license their brand name to local affiliates.
Under US law, all major auditors must undergo regular inspections by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Yet the PCAOB is not allowed by the Chinese government to inspect the local Chinese affiliates of the big four auditing firms.
It cites national security reasons. Therefore, all US-listed Chinese firms appear to be in breach of the Securities Exchange Act.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, however, basically has caved in to Beijing’s refusal to turn over such corporate information to US regulators. The SEC had the right to delist all Chinese companies from US exchanges for being in breach of the Securities Exchange Act. It chose not to.
Chinese accounting expert Paul Gillis, from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, sums up the situation nicely: “Today we have different rules for Chinese companies that list in the US than we have for others. Not only is the SEC dependent on Chinese regulators to decide what documents they can see, the PCAOB remains unable to conduct inspections of auditors.”
In Australia, we have the Corporations Act 2001, which sets out the laws dealing with companies in Australia. Section 310 of the act states: “The auditor: (a) has a right of access at all reasonable times to the books of the company, registered scheme or disclosing entity; and (b) may require any officer to give the auditor information, explanations or other assistance for the purposes of the audit or review.”
So what would an Australian auditor do if it were faced with the task of auditing a Chinese company?
Of course there are always opportunities in China, but there are safer ways of playing the growing middle class — and you don’t need to suffer the knee-trembling volatility or poor transparency of investing directly into a Chinese listed company.
Roger Montgomery is founder and chief information officer of the Montgomery Fund.
ROGER MONTGOMERY THE AUSTRALIAN JULY 11, 2015 12:00AM
The year to June witnessed enormous variation in sharemarket returns.
The Australian All Ordinaries Index recorded a miserly 1.3 per cent return, excluding dividends. The Shanghai Composite Index was easily the best performing major market with a return of 108.8 per cent.
That excitement, which saw the Chinese market up 152 per cent at its peak, was driven by a lot of leverage (that is, investors borrowing to finance their share investments).
I previously have pointed out individual names selling on nose-bleeding multiples.
The 30 per cent decline in the past month has seen $US3.2 trillion ($4.3 trillion) of value, or more than two times the total value of the Australian sharemarket, wiped out.
Given most small Chinese investors who undertake margin lending joined the market near its peak, there is a fear this decline will transmit into the real economy.
Making matters worse, more than a quarter of the companies, representing one-third of the market capitalisation, listed on the main exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen have had their stock suspended, something usually reserved for significant imminent announcements.
The “risk off” bet (the decision of many Chinese investors to sell at the same time) has translated into a recent sharp decline in iron ore, down 26 per cent to about $US45 a tonne; oil, down 12 per cent to $US52/bbl and copper, down 7 per cent to $US2.44 a pound.
Investors lucky or insightful enough to get their money offshore have just witnessed the Australian dollar hitting six-year lows at sub US74c. On the downside, that trip to Aspen just got a bit more expensive.
The objective of the recently launched Montgomery Global Fund is to purchase a portfolio of 15-30 high-quality companies, with good prospects at a discount to their estimated intrinsic value, and if there are insufficient companies that appeal, then allow the cash component of the portfolio to build.
To run such a fund you need to be absolutely sure of the numbers that you work with. Excess volatility also does not make the job any easier. Some investors will take heart at the ‘rebound’ we saw at the end of the week in the Chinese share market with a 6 per cent jump in a single session.
But the fund does not and is unlikely ever to own any Chinese listed companies.
The issue I have is one of transparency and that has a lot to do with the audit process and the hurdles foreign auditors face when trying to assess Chinese companies.
Such financial and business information has been categorised by the Chinese government as state secrets, so cannot be turned over to foreigners.
The “big four” auditing firms do not operate in mainland China. Instead, they essentially license their brand name to local affiliates.
Under US law, all major auditors must undergo regular inspections by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Yet the PCAOB is not allowed by the Chinese government to inspect the local Chinese affiliates of the big four auditing firms.
It cites national security reasons. Therefore, all US-listed Chinese firms appear to be in breach of the Securities Exchange Act.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, however, basically has caved in to Beijing’s refusal to turn over such corporate information to US regulators. The SEC had the right to delist all Chinese companies from US exchanges for being in breach of the Securities Exchange Act. It chose not to.
Chinese accounting expert Paul Gillis, from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, sums up the situation nicely: “Today we have different rules for Chinese companies that list in the US than we have for others. Not only is the SEC dependent on Chinese regulators to decide what documents they can see, the PCAOB remains unable to conduct inspections of auditors.”
In Australia, we have the Corporations Act 2001, which sets out the laws dealing with companies in Australia. Section 310 of the act states: “The auditor: (a) has a right of access at all reasonable times to the books of the company, registered scheme or disclosing entity; and (b) may require any officer to give the auditor information, explanations or other assistance for the purposes of the audit or review.”
So what would an Australian auditor do if it were faced with the task of auditing a Chinese company?
Of course there are always opportunities in China, but there are safer ways of playing the growing middle class — and you don’t need to suffer the knee-trembling volatility or poor transparency of investing directly into a Chinese listed company.
Roger Montgomery is founder and chief information officer of the Montgomery Fund.
