China Telecom will be withdrawn from the New York Stock Exchange.
Photo:
Qilai Shen / Bloomberg News
The New York Stock Exchange will move forward with the withdrawal of three Chinese telecommunications companies targeted by an executive order from President Trump, which will reverse course once again after the NYSE said earlier this week that it would not would retire.
The NYSE said Wednesday that it is trading US-listed shares of China Mobile Ltd.
CHL -5.78%
, China Telecom Corp.
NO -4.38%
and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.
CHU -4.39%
would be suspended at 4 a.m. ET Monday. Trump’s order seeks to ban the trading of securities of companies that the administration says have ties to the Chinese military.
The NYSE said its latest action came on Tuesday after receiving “new specific guidance” from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which listed U.S. deposit income from the three companies as to cutlery by Trump’s order. The NYSE statement also noted that companies could appeal the decision to withdraw from the stock market.
Wednesday’s investment is likely to raise more questions about the stock market’s management of the three Chinese stocks. Last week, the NYSE said it would withdraw all three companies to comply with Trump’s order, only to reverse the course on Monday and say it would not withdraw them. One person familiar with the matter said the NYSE backed down because of the ambiguity of whether the three companies were covered by the order. The new guidelines from the Treasury Department appear to have solved this problem.
The NYSE’s backlash drew criticism from the Trump administration and supporters of a hard line against Beijing. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called on NYSE President Stacey Cunningham to oppose the NYSE flip-flop.
Write to Alexander Osipovich to [email protected]
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