China officially relaunches IPOs after hiatus

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's securities regulator said on Wednesday that it had approved three applications of initial public offerings, ending a freeze on such approvals.

China halted new listings for 14 months from late 2012, in what some analysts said was a move to shield sluggish domestic equity markets from further downward pressure.

The three approved companies are Nanjing Kangni Mechanical & Electrical Co., Ltd, Ellington Electronics Technology and Kuaijishan Wine Company, in which Zhejiang China Light & Textile Industrial City Group has a 34 percent stake, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and Zhejiang China Light said in separate statements.

The CSRC said a fourth IPO application, by edg (China) Corp Ltd., had been rejected, though it did not state any reasons.

Earlier in the month, the CSRC said it would start examining the four companies hoping to list after a slew of companies posted draft prospectuses on its website www.csrc.gov.cn.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by William Hardy)