Xiaomi gets temporary postponement of US ban on US investments

The Trump-era ban was dropped on Friday by a US federal judge, who ruled that Washington lacked “substantial evidence” to support its claim that Xiaomi is owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
Days before President Joe Biden took office in January, the US Department of Defense added Xiaomi to a list of companies it claimed had ties to the Chinese military. Companies on the list were subject to severe restrictions, including the US investment ban.

Had U.S. district judge Rudolph Contreras not issued a preliminary injunction, the ban would have come into effect Monday, according to court documents.

Shares of Xiaomi were up a whopping 12% in Hong Kong on Monday. The stock was last up more than 7%, on track for its best day since December.

Initial news of Xiaomi’s inclusion in the Defense Ministry’s list caused a 10% drop in the company’s stock. Xiaomi denied ownership or control by the Chinese military at the time and later filed a lawsuit to remove it from the list.

The court “is somewhat skeptical that weighty national security concerns are actually involved,” Contreras said in his opinion on Friday, adding that the court supported Xiaomi’s argument that the ban would cause “irreparable harm” to the company by inflicting it. of “serious reputational damage and irreparable business. economic injuries.”

Xiaomi said in an application to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday that it is was “satisfied” with the decision to temporarily suspend the ban, saying it would continue to urge the court to remove itself permanently from the Defense Department list.

The Department of Defense did not respond outside US office hours to a request for comment on the next steps in the case.

In the weeks before Biden took office, the Trump administration stepped up its campaign against Chinese companies. In addition to Xiaomi, the Pentagon added eight other companies to its list in mid-January, including Luokung Technology, a Chinese mapping software developer listed on the Nasdaq. Luokung was also set to stop trading on Monday, but the company announced last week that the suspension had been delayed until May because the Department of Defense misspelled the company’s name when it was first added to the agency’s list.

Other Chinese companies also continue to be affected by Trump-era restrictions. The New York Stock Exchange announced late last month that it would scrap CNOOC, China’s third-largest oil company, to comply with the injunction banning US investment in certain companies signed by former President Donald Trump in November. The shares stopped trading on March 9.

Source