Didi leaving NYSE to list on Hong Kong market
Didi Chuxing, the Chinese Uber-like ride-hailing champion and a company once considered the world’s most successful startup, said Friday that it would begin delisting its New York-traded shares and prepare for a public offering in Hong Kong.
The move is sure to reverberate outside China, particularly in Washington and on Wall Street. Just in June, Didi sold shares to global investors in an initial public offering in New York that valued the company at $69 billion. The abrupt turn after just six months is likely to anger investors, who bid up the price of the company this summer when it listed.
In a statement in China, Didi said its board had authorized beginning the process of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. The securities that trade in the United States will be “convertible into freely tradable shares” of the company on another stock exchange, it said.
“The company will organize a shareholders’ meeting to vote on the above matter at an appropriate time in the future, following necessary procedures,” Didi said.
The shift comes as officials in the United States and China alike take an increasingly skeptical view of the access that Chinese companies have long enjoyed to Wall Street and its money.
Beijing’s top leaders are also moving to assert greater control over Didi and the private technology sector. While some analysts have applauded longneeded regulatory measures to control consumer data and end anti-competitive practices, others worry the moves may damage the competitiveness of the country’s dynamic private technology giants.
Chinese officials have rushed to reassure investors about the importance of private industry, but China’s efforts to tame its internet giants has already worried investors that a push for social control will only extend deeper into the economy.
At the same time, an antitrust campaign aimed at the technology industry has left untouched state-run monopolies that dominate key sectors like energy, telecommunications and banking.