2021年01月08日
BDA’s Euan Rellie talks to SCMP on NYSE delisting Chinese telecom companies
January 6, 2021
The South China Morning Post
by Jodi Xu Klein
NYSE reverses course again with plan to delist Chinese telecoms firms
- This is the second reversal since December 31 when the exchange announced its plan to delist the three Chinese companies
- The decision is based on guidance the ‘Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control provided to the NYSE’
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday said it is moving forward to delist three Chinese telecommunications carriers again less than two days after it halted that plan.The decision is based on “new specific guidance received on Jan. 5, 2021, that the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control provided to the NYSE,” the exchange said in a statement Wednesday. “The issuers have a right to a review of this determination.”
This was the second reversal since December 31 when the exchange announced its plan to delist the three Chinese companies. Late Monday, the exchange walked back on that plan saying the companies would continue to be listed.
American investors, if the delistings are completed, will be prohibited from buying new securities in these three companies starting January 11.
The American depositary shares (ADSs) of China Telecom fell by as much as 4.1 per cent to US$27.18, while China Mobile declined by 4.2 per cent to US$28.11 and China Unicom (Hong Kong) retreated by 3.9 per cent to US$5.91 Wednesday in New York.
Prices in the ADSs of the companies fluctuated in the past week as the delisting decisions flip-flopped, swinging up and down following each change.
“The process has been chaotic, opaque and short-sighted,” said Euan Rellie, managing partner at Asia-focused investment advisory firm BDA Partners. “It harms US and global investors, including pension funds. It also damages the reputation of the NYSE for transparency and independence.”
“The status of the US as an international financial centre relies on the confidence that global companies and investors have in the certainty of our rules,” Rellie added. “We should not distort markets in this way.”
