How to activate funds for investment appreciation

Effectively revitalizing existing assets and forming a virtuous circle between existing assets and new investment are of great significance for improving the level of infrastructure operation and management and broadening social investment channels. A few days ago, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Revitalizing Stock Assets and Expanding Effective Investment (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), which put forward opinions on the direction and method of revitalizing stock assets and the use of recovered funds.

Revitalize what?

Focus on the key direction of stock assets

The Opinions call for focusing on key areas. First, focus on revitalizing the assets of infrastructure projects with large stock, good current income or great growth potential, including municipal facilities such as transportation, water conservancy, clean energy, affordable rental housing, water, electricity and heat, ecological protection, industrial parks, warehousing and logistics, tourism, and new infrastructure. The second is to revitalize the stock as a whole and organically expand the project assets, including the transformation of comprehensive transportation hubs and the withdrawal of industrial enterprises from cities to parks. Third, the project assets that have been idle for a long time but have great development and utilization value should be activated in an orderly manner, including old factories, cultural venues, idle land, and non-main business assets such as hotels, restaurants and sanatoriums run by state-owned enterprises.

The Opinions call for focusing on key areas. First, promote areas with heavy construction tasks, strong investment demand, large stock scale and good asset quality, actively revitalize existing assets, raise construction funds, support new project construction, and firmly hold the risk bottom line. The second is to promote areas with high local government debt ratio and high pressure on fiscal balance, accelerate the revitalization of existing assets, steadily resolve local government debt risks, enhance fiscal sustainability, and reasonably support the construction of new projects. Third, around the implementation of major regional strategies such as the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and the promotion of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, relevant regions are encouraged to take the lead in increasing the vitality of existing assets and give full play to their exemplary role.

The Opinions call for focusing on key enterprises. Revitalize existing assets and treat all kinds of market players equally. Guide and support state-owned enterprises with many infrastructure assets, heavy construction tasks and high debt ratio, take revitalizing existing assets as an important means to preserve and increase the value of state-owned assets, prevent debt risks, raise construction funds and optimize asset structure, select appropriate existing assets and adopt various methods to revitalize them. Encourage private enterprises to participate in the revitalization of state-owned stock assets and actively revitalize their own stock assets according to the actual situation, and use the recovered funds for reinvestment to reduce operational risks and promote sustained and healthy development.

Who will revitalize it?

Optimize and improve the way to revitalize existing assets.

The Opinions propose to promote the healthy development of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the infrastructure sector. Further improve the efficiency of recommendation and review, and encourage more qualified infrastructure REITs to be issued and listed. For projects that play an important role in maintaining the stability of the industrial chain supply chain and strengthening people's livelihood security, on the premise of meeting the issuance requirements, meeting market expectations and ensuring controllable risks, requirements such as operating life and income concentration can be further flexibly and reasonably determined. Establish and improve the financing mechanism and explore the establishment of a multi-level infrastructure REITs market. If the issuance of infrastructure REITs by state-owned enterprises involves the transfer of state-owned property rights by non-public agreement, it shall be reported to the state-owned assets supervision and administration institution at the same level for approval as required. Study and promote the legislation related to real estate investment trust funds.

At the same time, standardize and orderly promote government and social capital cooperation (PPP). Encourage stock projects with long-term stable operating income to adopt PPP mode, revitalize stock assets, and improve operational efficiency and service level. Local people's governments can take appropriate measures to reward social capitalists who effectively revitalize their existing assets and reduce the amount of government subsidies through innovative operation modes, introduction of advanced technologies and improvement of operational efficiency.

The Opinions call for giving full play to the functions of state-owned capital investment and operating companies. Encourage state-owned enterprises to rely on state-owned capital investment and operating companies to revitalize long-term idle stock assets and integrate non-main business assets through entry transactions, agreement transfer, free transfer, asset replacement and joint integration. Provide medium and long-term financial support for qualified state-owned capital investment and operating companies to revitalize existing assets by issuing bonds.

It is also necessary to explore and promote the organic combination of revitalizing stocks and reconstruction and expansion. Attract social capital to participate in the revitalization of urban old asset resources, especially the transformation of old residential areas, and further enrich the functions of existing assets and improve asset efficiency through accurate positioning, upgrading quality and perfect use. According to local conditions, actively explore the sinking of sewage treatment plants, the comprehensive development of underground space above subways and transportation hubs, and the development of community public service space for affordable rental housing, effectively revitalize existing railway stations and surrounding developable land and other assets, and improve the project income level. In the land space planning and related special planning at all levels, we should fully consider the relocation or functional transformation of the old port area, optimize the planned use of the port passenger station, and implement comprehensive development and utilization.

In addition, we should tap the value of idle and inefficient assets. We will promote the transformation of idle and inefficient assets, rationally adjust the planned use and development intensity according to laws and regulations, and develop new functions such as innovative research and development, health preservation, old-age care, sports and fitness, leisure tourism, community service or affordable rental housing. Support financial asset management companies, financial asset investment companies and state-owned capital investment and operation companies to revitalize idle and inefficient assets through acquisition and disposal of non-performing assets, substantial restructuring, and market-oriented debt-to-equity swaps. Support mergers and acquisitions and other ways to revitalize. Actively explore ways to revitalize existing assets through market-oriented methods such as asset securitization. Encourage leading enterprises in the industry to strengthen the optimization and integration of existing assets through mergers and acquisitions, property rights transfer and other means under the premise of complying with anti-monopoly laws and regulations, and improve asset quality and scale efficiency. Through the reform of mixed ownership, strategic investors and professional operation management institutions are introduced. , improve the operation and management capabilities of existing asset projects.

How to revitalize?

Increase policy support and make good use of recovered funds.

The "Opinions" propose to increase policy support for revitalizing existing assets. Among them, we should actively implement the conditions of the revitalization project. According to the specific situation of the stock assets project, the conditions for revitalizing are classified and implemented. For projects with unclear property rights, straighten out the property rights relationship according to laws and regulations, complete the definition of property rights, and speed up the registration of relevant property rights. For projects with incomplete preliminary work procedures, relevant procedures shall be completed in accordance with relevant regulations, and procedures such as completion acceptance and verification of charging standards shall be accelerated. Explore and formulate reasonable solutions to the difficult problems encountered in the process of project revitalization and actively promote their implementation.

We must also implement fiscal and taxation policies. Implement tax policies related to supporting infrastructure REITs. For key projects that meet the requirements of revitalizing existing assets and pay a large amount of tax, tax authorities at all levels should provide good services and publicity, guide enterprises to pay taxes according to laws and regulations, and help revitalize existing assets under the current tax policy framework. Support banks, trusts, insurance, financial asset management, equity investment funds and other institutions, give full play to their respective advantages, and actively participate in revitalizing existing assets in accordance with the principle of marketization. Encourage qualified financial asset management companies and financial asset investment companies to raise funds by issuing bonds to solve the problem of mismatch between debt duration and asset duration. Strengthen investment and financing cooperation and docking, and actively promote projects to revitalize existing assets to relevant financial institutions.

In guiding the use of recovered funds, the Opinions call for strengthening the management of recovered funds to revitalize existing assets, and ensuring that the funds are mainly used for project construction and the formation of high-quality assets, except for expenses such as employee placement, tax payment and debt repayment. Encourage the use of recovered funds for profitable project construction by capital injection, and give full play to the role of recovered funds in stimulating investment expansion. For areas with high local government debt ratio and great pressure on fiscal balance, the funds recovered from revitalizing the stock of public assets can be appropriately used for the "three guarantees" expenditure and debt service. The use of recovered funds shall meet the requirements of budget management, supervision and management of state-owned assets and other relevant policies.

At the same time, accurately and effectively support the construction of new projects. If the recovered funds from existing assets are invested in new projects, priority will be given to supporting key projects such as comprehensive transportation and logistics hub, large-scale clean energy base, environmental infrastructure, "one old and one small", focusing on supporting major projects in the Tenth Five-Year Plan 102, and giving priority to supporting projects under construction or projects that meet relevant planning and ecological protection requirements and have mature preliminary work. Relevant departments should speed up the preliminary work procedures such as approval and filing, planning and site selection, land use and sea use, environmental assessment and construction permit. , so as to promote the implementation of the project as soon as possible, forming a physical workload.

Strengthen matching funds. When arranging funds such as investment in the central budget, under the same conditions, priority can be given to new projects invested in revitalizing existing assets recovery funds; Give play to the special demonstration and guiding role of investment in the central budget, and encourage social capital to participate in revitalizing state-owned stock assets in various ways. The recovered funds can be used to invest in new projects and support local government special bonds as required. Encourage banks and other financial institutions to provide supporting financing support in accordance with the principle of marketization.