This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘China gives IPOs the green light’
Sonja Hutson
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Friday, March 28th, and this is your FT News Briefing. The car industry has hit the skids, and Chinese authorities are giving IPOs the green light. Plus, protesters in Turkey are worried about their democracy.
Ayla Jean Yackley
There’s been arrests of journalists, academics, a talent agent. Anybody who has come out and been critical of the government is a potential target.
Sonja Hutson
I’m Sonja Hutson, and here’s the news you need to start your day.
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Shares in car companies took a hit yesterday. Investors were reacting to US President Donald Trump’s new 25 per cent tariffs on automotive imports. One analyst told the FT that when you factor in additional tariffs that are expected next week, levies could end up being as high as 50 per cent on some vehicles. Now, almost half of all the cars sold in the US are imported. and even those that are assembled in America get the majority of their parts from overseas. General Motors stocks slid more than 7 per cent yesterday and Ford was down roughly 4 per cent.
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Spring is in the air for companies looking to list publicly in China. Financial authorities in the country have told certain groups that they can go ahead and file their IPO paperwork. It’s a big change, and it could signal the start of a listings revival. The FT’s Asia markets correspondent, Arjun Neil Alim, is staying up late to talk to me about it. Hey, Arjun.
Arjun Neil Alim
Hi Sonja, thanks for having me.
Sonja Hutson
Thanks for being on the show. So what are Chinese regulators actually telling companies these days? What is the new message?
Arjun Neil Alim
So what we’ve heard from our reporting is that Chinese regulators are now telling some companies that they can start the process of filing to IPO in mainland China. This is a big change because over the last year or so there have been very few IPOs in China and almost no major IPOs. I mean the total value of IPOs fell from about $70bn in 2022 to under $10bn in 2024. Now, some technology companies and some consumer companies have been told they can list.
Sonja Hutson
Yeah, and just unpack a bit for me how that’s different from before. Why was China previously discouraging IPOs?
Arjun Neil Alim
So we’re all familiar with the issues that have faced the Chinese economy over the past few years. They’re dealing with the aftermath of their property market bubble bursting. Growth has not been as robust as it once was. Their export-oriented economic model is now under threat from the United States. In these circumstances, regulators were really prioritising stability of the market, overgrowing the market. And so it felt like they were discouraging IPOs over the last year for fear that they would destabilise the market. A bad IPO can really hit investor sentiment and they wanted to focus on the stocks that are already listed, supporting those.
Sonja Hutson
And so what has changed since then?
Arjun Neil Alim
Well, what’s changed is that in September, authorities launched a policy stimulus in order to reboot the economy. This included measures to boost the stock market. For example, they had a programme to lend funds to companies to buy back their own shares and they’ve been emphasising boosting consumption in mainland China.
And it does feel like there has been a re-rating of Chinese assets — both by local investors and by global investors. So there is more optimism now in Chinese capital markets and so perhaps it felt like the right time just for regulators to now start looking at growing the market rather than simply focusing on stability.
Sonja Hutson
Got it. So China has had these concerns about the health of its stock market, but in the last few months, it has been really encouraging these IPOs trying to basically get share prices up. Is this the start of a listings revival, do you think?
Arjun Neil Alim
Well, this is just the first sign. There are some companies that have filed papers to IPO, including a competitor to GoPro. It takes a long time to turn a big tanker like this, but if China can bring about a rebound in its IPO market, it might just become a more attractive place for asset allocators to park funds.
Sonja Hutson
That’s FT’s Arjun Neil Alim. Thanks Arjun.
Arjun Neil Alim
Thanks very much for having me.
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Sonja Hutson
Turkish police have arrested dozens of people involved in protests last week. The demonstrations were in response to the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. He’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival. All the unrest has shaken confidence in the future of Turkey’s democracy and in its economy. I’m joined now by the FT’s Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul. Hi, Ayla.
Ayla Jean Yackley
Hi, how are you?
Sonja Hutson
Doing well, thanks. So, can you give us some quick background on the protests and İmamoğlu’s arrest? What’s been happening?
Ayla Jean Yackley
So a week ago on March 19th, police detained Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is the very popular mayor of Istanbul, and accused him of being involved in both a corruption network as well as having links with terrorism. Protests began that evening and you know, tens of thousands of people were turning out every night. Protesters I spoke to told me that they are worried that this might be the beginning of the end of Turkish democracy.
Sonja Hutson
Wow. So yeah, tell me a little bit more about that. Why was İmamoğlu’s arrest such a big deal?
Ayla Jean Yackley
Well, it’s important to note that Turkish democracy has been troubled for a long time. Most notably, there was a coup attempt that failed to oust Erdoğan in 2016, and he subsequently introduced emergency rule while winning a referendum that allowed him to consolidate power in the presidency.
And İmamoğlu’s arrest this month didn’t happen in a vacuum either. There’s been arrests of journalists, academics, a talent agent — anybody who has come out and been critical of the government is a potential target. But what made Imamo’s arrest so shocking for many here in Turkey is that Erdoğan had never moved this dramatically against the main opposition party.
Sonja Hutson
And how has all of this impacted investment in the country? You know, Turkey has had a somewhat turbulent relationship with foreign investors in the past.
Ayla Jean Yackley
Yes, you know, Turkey’s in the middle of an economic recovery programme, trying to bring inflation down that still stuck around 40 per cent. And a key part of that has been trying to attract foreign investors with more orthodox monetary policy. For years, Erdoğan had forced to central bank to keep interest rates low. That had made inflation a real headache for people. And the programme has been working, you know, foreign investors have come back, but upon the news of İmamoğlu’s arrest, there was quite a bit of turmoil in the markets. We have estimates that the central bank was forced to spend just over the course of three days about $25bn of its reserves in order to study the lira.
Sonja Hutson
So what’s the path forward for Erdoğan and for Turkey? What are you gonna be looking out for in the coming weeks?
Ayla Jean Yackley
Well, what we’ve seen from Erdoğan in his response to the protests is that he’s not really hearing those concerns we talked about — the fear that Turkish democracy is in danger. He’s called the protest street terrorism. So one thing I think we cannot expect is any kind of loosening or easing up from Erdoğan.
The main opposition party that İmamoğlu belongs to, what they’re hoping is that this pressure will eventually force parliament to call early elections. But I would say that Erdoğan will move when he’s ready to move. He still has three years left on his mandate while early elections don’t seem to be something that, you know, he’s ready to take the country to anytime soon.
Sonja Hutson
Ayla Jean Yackley covers Turkey for the FT. Thanks, Ayla.
Ayla Jean Yackley
Thanks for having me on.
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Sonja Hutson
You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Check back next week for the latest business news.
The FT News Briefing is produced by Marc Filippino, Fiona Symon, Lulu Smyth, Ethan Plotkin, Kasia Broussalian, and me, Sonja Hutson. Our engineer is Joseph Salcedo. We had help this week from Katie McMurran, Michael Lello, Peter Barber, David De Silva, and Gavin Kallmann. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio and our theme song is by Metaphor Music.
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