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China’s top three telcos advise of imminent delisting from New York Stock Exchange

Trump-era Executive Order gets China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile kicked off bourse

China’s top three telcos – China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom – have warned investors they are about to be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The three carriers are all also listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and last Friday updated investors there with filings that boiled down to saying they appealed against their de-listing in New York, but that on May 6th they received correspondence saying their appeals failed.

The source of this situation is Executive Order 13959 that prohibited US citizens from investing in several Chinese enterprises on grounds that they finance “Communist Chinese military companies”. The Executive Order says the carriers NYSE listings means China “exploits United States investors to finance the development and modernization of its military.”

After some odd reversals, the NYSE suspended trade in all three entities on January 11th.

While the Executive Order was a Trump administration initiative, the Biden administration has not reversed the policy behind the Order.

Which brings us to the three statements issued last Friday, in which each of the three carriers state that the NYSE would soon issue press releases formally announcing their expulsion.

If you fancy reading the statements, here they are for China Unicom [PDF], China Mobile [PDF], and China Telecom [PDF].

The bits that attracted The Register’s attention are the disclosures about how many shares remain on the books with the NYSE. China Telecom says about 0.14 percent of its stock is attached to the NYSE. China Unicom says 0.2 percent of its stock is in play. China Mobile didn’t name a number.

All explain how stockholders can bail if they need to.

There’s little sign the NYSE decision will hurt the three companies, as their stock prices have not dipped markedly since the issuance of the Executive Order and suspension by New York’s bourse. ®

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