China Telecom will be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange.
Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News
The New York Stock Exchange will move forward with delisting three Chinese telecommunications companies targeted by an executive order from President Trump, reversing course yet again after the NYSE said earlier this week that it wouldn’t delist them.
The NYSE said Wednesday that trading of the U.S.-listed shares of China Mobile Ltd. CHL -3.25% , China Telecom Corp. CHA -3.56% and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. CHU -1.46% would be suspended at 4 a.m. ET on Monday. Mr. Trump’s order seeks to ban trading in securities of companies that the administration says have links to the Chinese military.
The NYSE said its latest action came after it received “new specific guidance” from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday, which listed the three companies’ American depositary receipts as being covered by Mr. Trump’s order. The NYSE’s statement also noted that the companies could appeal the delisting decision to the exchange.
Wednesday’s reversal is likely to raise further questions about the exchange’s handling of the three Chinese stocks. Last week, the NYSE said it would delist the three companies to comply with Mr. Trump’s order, only to reverse course on Monday and say that it wasn’t delisting them. A person familiar with the matter said the NYSE backtracked due to ambiguity in whether the three companies were covered by the order. The new guidance from the Treasury Department appears to have resolved that issue.
The NYSE’s backpedaling drew criticism from the Trump administration and supporters of a hard line against Beijing. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called NYSE President Stacey Cunningham to object to the NYSE’s flip-flop.
Write to Alexander Osipovich at [email protected]
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