Last Friday, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced at its official website that the restrictions on foreign shares in online data processing and transaction companies (E-commerce business) will be uplifted, allowing foreign share percentage up to 100%, across China based on the pilot operation of China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone. It means that domestic E-commerce enterprises needn’t apply the variable interest entity (VIE) structure for their overseas financing and IPO activities, while foreign-funded VIE companies like JD.com can return back to Shanghai A-share market without the withdrawal of foreign funds.

 

Source: Experts from Guangzhou Daily, June 23, 2015