The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Photographer: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
Photographer: Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
The New York Stock Exchange said it will scrap three Chinese companies to comply with a US executive order restricting companies identified as affiliated with the Chinese military.
According to a statement from the exchange, China Mobile Ltd., China Telecom Corp Ltd., China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd have been suspended from trading between January 7 and January 11, and proceedings have been initiated to remove them, according to a statement from the exchange.
The three companies have separate listings in Hong Kong. All of them generate all of their income in China and have no significant presence in the US other than their listings there.
US President Donald Trump signed an injunction in November to ban US investments in Chinese companies owned or controlled by the military, in an effort to pressure Beijing over what it considers illegal business practices. The injunction prohibited American investors from buying and selling stock in a list of Chinese companies designated by the Pentagon as military ties.
China’s State Department later accused the US of “ viciously ” vilifying its military-civil integration policies and pledging to protect the country’s businesses. Chinese officials have also threatened to respond to the Trump administration’s past actions with their own blacklist of US companies.
The executive order has resulted in a series of companies being removed indices compiled by MSCI Inc., S&P Dow Jones Global Indices and FTSE Russell.
Global exchanges, including NYSE and Nasdaq Inc., have courted Chinese companies over the past decade as they attempt to expand their IPO business, particularly in the Internet sector. In response, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. to be rules of recent years to pull back listings, including allowing companies with weighted voting rights to sell shares – strengthening the power of company founders at the expense of weaker protections for minority investors.
Companies including e-commerce giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.Com Inc., already listed in New York, have been conducting secondary listings in Hong Kong for the past two years as the US-China trade war intensified.
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