Five major US-listed Chinese companies announced their withdrawal from the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, at a time when Beijing firms are in the crosshairs of the US regulator.
Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong companies are notorious for failing to submit their financial statements to auditors approved by US authorities. A law passed in 2020 in the US Congress requires any company listed in the United States to have its accounts certified by a firm approved by the independent accounting organization PCAOB.
“Voluntary retirement”
In the event of non-compliance with the legislation, companies risk delisting from 2024. In this context, the oil giants Sinopec and PetroChina indicated on Friday in separate press releases a “voluntary withdrawal” from the Stock Exchange. of New York, where they are qualified.
Insurance heavyweight China Life Insurance, Chinese aluminum giant Chalco and a Shanghai-based subsidiary of Sinopec have announced similar moves. All justify this decision by the costs associated with maintaining listings in the United States, as well as the burden of meeting audit obligations.
The five groups are on a list of companies that were ordered by the US market regulator (SEC) to comply with accounting obligations and were therefore threatened with being evicted from the US stock market.
Source: BFM TV
