The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has issued and implemented a reform package to create a dedicated “Sci-Tech Growth Tier” within the STAR Market, aimed at improving the market’s inclusiveness for technology companies that are still loss-making. The package uses the new tier as the vehicle to resume allowing unprofitable issuers to list under the STAR Market’s fifth listing standard, alongside additional measures to broaden access while strengthening protections for retail investors. The Sci-Tech Growth Tier will focus on technology firms with significant technical breakthroughs, strong commercial prospects and sustained research and development spending that have not yet reached profitability; all existing and newly registered loss-making STAR-listed technology companies will be included in the tier. Investor-protection measures include adding a uniform “U” identifier to the stock short name for Sci-Tech Growth Tier companies, setting a higher threshold for newly registered loss-making firms to remove the “U” identifier, requiring regular disclosure of why the firm remains unprofitable and related risks, requiring securities firms to enhance investor risk assessments and risk disclosures, and requiring individual investors to sign a dedicated risk disclosure for investing in these stocks. The core issuance and listing framework is otherwise kept unchanged, and the investment eligibility threshold and the conditions for existing loss-making firms to remove the “U” identifier are maintained. To enhance institutional flexibility for high-quality tech issuers, the CSRC also set out six supporting policy measures, including a pilot “seasoned professional institutional investor” regime for fifth-standard issuers where such investors’ participation serves as a review reference rather than a new listing condition, a pilot IPO pre-review mechanism with non-public pre-filing review followed by disclosure of pre-review Q&A when a formal filing is made, and an expansion of the fifth standard beyond biopharmaceuticals to areas such as artificial intelligence, commercial spaceflight and the low-altitude economy. Implementation work will include exchange-level rule detailing and supervision for the seasoned-investor pilot, continued strict gatekeeping for listings under the STAR Market’s “hard tech” positioning, enhanced risk monitoring and early correction, and intensified enforcement against fraudulent issuance and financial misstatement.

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