China Telecom is being deleted from the New York Stock Exchange.
Photo:
Qilai Shen / Bloomberg News
The New York Stock Exchange will continue to delist three Chinese telecommunications companies targeted by an executive order from President Trump, reversing course again after the NYSE said it would not delist them earlier this week.
The NYSE said on Wednesday that it is trading in the US-listed shares of China Mobile Ltd.
CHL -5.78%
, China Telecom Corp.
NO -4.13%
and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.
CHU -4.15%
would be suspended at 4 a.m. ET Monday. Mr. Trump’s order aims to ban trading in securities of companies that the government says have ties to the Chinese military.
The NYSE said its latest move came after it received “new specific guidelines” on Tuesday from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which listed the three companies’ US certificates as covered by Mr. Trump’s warrant. The NYSE statement also noted that the companies could appeal the deletion decision to the stock exchange.
Wednesday’s reversal is likely to raise further questions about how the stock market handles the three Chinese stocks. Last week, the NYSE said it would scrap the three companies to comply with Mr. Trump’s order, but to change course on Monday saying it would not scrap them. A person familiar with the case said the NYSE was returning due to uncertainty as to whether the three companies were under the command. The new guidelines from the Ministry of Finance seem to have solved that problem.
The NYSE withdrawal has been criticized by the Trump administration and hard-line advocates against Beijing. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called NYSE President Stacey Cunningham to object to the NYSE flip-flop.
Write to Alexander Osipovich at [email protected]
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