To quote an old Chinese proverb, the U.S. was “Killing the chicken to scare the monkey” this week, in its recent Long March to rid Wall Street of “pump and dump” IPOs by Chinese firms. Suitably enough, the latest monkey-scaring came from the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
借用一句中国古语，本周美国在清理华尔街中国企业IPO“拉高出货”的行动中，可谓是在杀鸡儆猴。而这次行动，正是来自美国众议院美中战略竞争特别委员会。
In this case, the chickens being used to scare the monkeys were three small IPO underwriters, D. Boral Capital, Dominari Securities and Revere Securities. The committee on Monday said it sent letters to each of the three demanding information about IPOs they underwrote for Chinese firms that allegedly defrauded U.S. investors through “pump and dump” schemes.
在这次事件中，被用来杀鸡儆猴的鸡是三家小型IPO承销商：D. Boral Capital、Dominari Securities和Revere Securities。该委员会周一表示，已向这三家机构发出函件，要求其提供资料，说明它们承销的部分中国企业IPO是否涉及透过拉高出货计划欺诈美国投资者。
We’ve written about such questionable offerings for quite a while, which have all the markings of stock manipulation. They typically see Chinese companies raise modest amounts, usually $20 million or less, by selling shares at extremely inflated valuations. The stocks briefly pop after their trading debuts, before plummeting – leaving unsophisticated mom-and-pop investors with huge losses.
我们其实早已多次报道过这类可疑IPO案例，它们往往带有明显的股价操纵特征。通常情况下，这些中国企业以极高估值出售股票，但实际募资金额并不大，一般在2,000万美元或以下。股票上市后短暂上涨，但随后迅速暴跌，最终令缺乏经验的普通散户投资者承受巨大损失。