Bank of Beijing reports under-18 investors
1 November 2007
Bank of Beijing revealed that 84 pre-IPO shareholders were under the age of 18, the Financial Times reported. One of the largest individual investors was a one-year old child. The bank maintained that the shareholders' youth was legal, saying that most of the young investors were shareholders in credit cooperatives that were later acquired by the bank. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it would not comment on the matter yet. Suspicions linger over IPOs of state-owned companies, where officials often buy shares in the names of family members to profit from the listing. Bank of Beijing went public in Shanghai last month.