Chinese reverse mergers, in which Chinese companies were able to come to market on American exchanges, experienced a boom over the past decade, but that appears to be coming to an end, at least partly because of weak regulatory oversight. And the bust appears to have cost American investors at least $18 billion.
Of the selection from among 122 reverse mergers with Chinese companies that Reuters examined, it found that $18 billion of their market capitalization had disappeared between the time of the companies' peak stock prices and July 10, 2011. Accounting irregularities and other problems have resulted in share prices plummeting, and since March some 25 Chinese companies have been delisted while auditors at 30 have resigned.
According to a Reuters report, reverse mergers work is this way: A private company that wants to be listed on a U.S. exchange buys a shell company, one that has no meaningful operations or assets, that is already listed on the exchange in question. Usually this is done through a shell broker, who has acquired the shell company and then seeks a buyer for it.
Shell companies are often based in corporation-friendly states like Delaware, Nevada or Utah. When the shell broker finds a buyer, it puts the deal together and the acquiring firm becomes a publicly traded company without having to go through the scrutiny it would endure if seeking listing on its own.
Since companies are incorporated under state laws, not federal, they are not subject to the oversight of the SEC, which doesn't usually examine reverse mergers until after the process has been completed.
The distinguishing factor for most Chinese deals is that the company doing the acquiring of the shell company is generally a holding company based somewhere like Delaware, the British Virgin Islands, or some other tax haven. That holding company controls the operations of the mainland China business operations, and that extra layer makes it even tougher for regulators to wade through the company's accounts.
