Didi Says It Will Proceed With Delisting From NYSE

Some 96% of shareholders who forged votes at a Monday assembly favored the delisting proposal, the corporate stated. A Might 11 submitting with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee stated that Didi’s founders

Will Cheng

and

Jean Liu

had indicated they meant to vote in favor on a one-vote-per-share foundation.

The corporate stated in a separate announcement it had notified NYSE of its intention and deliberate to file its delisting notification with the SEC on or after June 2. Buying and selling in its shares would cease 10 days later.

Didi on Monday referred to its Might submitting by which it stated it received’t apply to listing its shares on one other change till the cybersecurity evaluation and any “rectification measures” are full.

It stated traders can commerce shares over-the-counter, although it stated whether or not such a market develops is outdoors the corporate’s management and warned that traders may very well be caught with shares with “no practicable technique of recouping any vital half” of their funding.

Didi’s American depositary receipts have plunged from their preliminary public providing value of $14 lower than a yr in the past, saddling many U.S. traders with heavy losses.

Didi shares began buying and selling on June 30, after the corporate bought $4.4 billion of inventory in an IPO. Days later, Chinese language regulators launched a probe into the corporate’s knowledge infrastructure, ordered it to droop new consumer registration and compelled a few of its widespread apps to be taken down, which minimize into its core ride-hailing enterprise in China. The probe is ongoing.

In buying and selling on Monday, the New York-listed ADRs closed at $1.44 a share, down 4% from Friday.

In December, Didi stated it deliberate to delist its shares within the U.S. and pursue a list in Hong Kong. The corporate has since stated it should resolve the cybersecurity evaluation earlier than it may apply for its apps to be restored in China and register new customers once more.

Didi final month stated its fourth-quarter income fell 12.7% from the identical interval a yr earlier.

Didi’s ordeal has performed out in opposition to the backdrop of a protracted dispute between Washington and Beijing over auditing requirements. China has deemed some firm data too delicate to nationwide safety to enter overseas arms. For corporations like Didi, knowledge together with on visitors flows or geographic data, might fall into this class.

In the meantime, the SEC calls for that corporations hand over their audit working papers—which might include uncooked knowledge, together with consumer data and communication between corporations and authorities companies—for U.S. regulatory inspection for 3 consecutive years, threatening to take away corporations from American exchanges in the event that they don’t.

In Might, the SEC stated greater than 100 Chinese language corporations, together with Didi, had been recognized as dealing with doable delisting from American exchanges, saying their auditing papers didn’t fulfill U.S. auditing requirements.

China’s securities regulator has stated that Didi’s choice to withdraw from the U.S. market was an impartial one made by the corporate that has nothing to do with different U.S.-listed Chinese language shares. The China Securities Regulatory Fee stated in April that Didi’s choice isn’t associated to discussions between the 2 nations about auditing necessities.

Write to Shen Lu at [email protected]