Securities Times | SSE: Continuously Enhancing the Inclusiveness and Adaptability of the SSE STAR Market System

On May 18, the "2026 Beijing High-Quality Development Conference for Listed Companies & Investment, Financing, M&A and Matchmaking Event", jointly organized by the Beijing Municipal Committee's Financial Office, the Beijing Office of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), and the China Association for Public Companies, was held in Beijing. At the conference, Zhang Xiaoyi, Deputy General Manager of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), stated that the SSE will respect the development patterns of sci-tech innovation enterprises and continuously enhance the inclusiveness and adaptability of the SSE STAR Market system. He noted that since the announcement of the establishment of the SSE STAR Market and the pilot registration-based IPO system in November 2018, after nearly seven years of development, the SSE STAR Market has become a core vehicle for serving the national innovation-driven development strategy and cultivating new productive forces.

Under the coordinated deployment of the CSRC and the joint efforts of various parties, the picture of the SSE STAR Market as the "core main front" for new productive forces, characterized by industrial clustering, innovation agglomeration, openness and inclusiveness, is becoming increasingly clear. To date, the SSE STAR Market has gathered 609 enterprises, with a total market value exceeding RMB 13 trillion. The three pillar industries of integrated circuits (ICs), biomedicine, and high-end equipment have taken shape, forming an industrial ecosystem with complete supply chains and concentrated innovation. Specifically, the IC sector has gathered 129 enterprises, covering all segments of the industrial chain, becoming a benchmark sector for independent innovation capability in the A-share market. The biomedicine sector has 119 listed companies, many of which have entered the commercialization and volume-production stage, becoming the main force in the pharmaceutical industry's "going global" efforts. In the high-end equipment sector, over 100 enterprises are tackling key core technologies, achieving major breakthroughs in areas such as rail transit, aerospace, and industrial machine tools.

The development quality of the SSE STAR Market is increasingly solidifying, with a preliminary outline of a high-quality "growth curve" from "hard technology" to "hard results" emerging. Specifically, SSE STAR Market listed companies, driven by both performance and R&D, are demonstrating the underlying quality of high-quality development. Data shows that in 2025, SSE STAR Market operating revenue reached nearly RMB 1.6 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%; net profit exceeded RMB 58.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 26.6%. In the first quarter of 2026, the high-growth trend continued, with revenue reaching RMB 385.3 billion, up 21.2% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to parent companies reaching RMB 23.4 billion, a significant year-on-year increase of nearly 200%. For seven consecutive years, the SSE STAR Market has maintained R&D investment intensity of nearly 13%, leading all A-share market segments. As of the end of 2025, cumulative R&D investment approached RMB 900 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.5% over the past three years. Major original sci-tech achievements continue to emerge, solidifying the foundation for technological self-reliance and self-strengthening.

Zhang Xiaoyi explained that the SSE, using the SSE STAR Market Eight Measures and the STAR Market 1+6 Reforms as key initiatives, has optimized the entire chain of IPO, M&A, and refinancing. Regarding IPOs, the SSE supports high-quality tech enterprises in going public and developing using diverse and inclusive standards; the fifth set of listing standards has been extended to frontier fields such as commercial aerospace, artificial intelligence, and low-altitude economy. The activity in M&A has significantly increased; since the issuance of the STAR Market Eight Measures, there have been over 200 equity acquisitions and 56 major asset restructurings, three times the total for the five years prior to the STAR Market's launch. Refinancing has been precisely targeted to "support the excellent and support the tech-oriented", with the interval for financing by profit-less enterprises optimized, helping tech enterprises continue to invest in R&D and innovation.

Looking to the future, Zhang Xiaoyi stated that the SSE will keep in mind the original aspirations and missions of the STAR Market and will focus on three areas to serve new productive forces: First, to further enhance the inclusiveness and adaptability of the system, providing more precise and powerful support for emerging and future industries. Second, to actively build the "main platform" for the translation of basic research results, enabling laboratory "seeds" to grow into "big trees" on the STAR Market. Third, to willingly serve as an assistant or service provider, humbly serving market participants.