NYSE says start process to exclude 3 Chinese telcos



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NEW YORK: The New York Stock Exchange is beginning the process of delisting the securities of three Chinese telecom companies, China Telecom Corporation Limited, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited, it said in a statement Thursday.

The move comes after President Donald Trump introduced an executive order in November banning U.S. investments in Chinese companies that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military, potentially affecting some of the largest companies big from China.

The November executive order sought to strengthen a 1999 law that ordered the Defense Department to compile a list of Chinese military companies.

The Pentagon, which only served the mandate this year, has so far appointed 35 companies, including oil company CNOOC Ltd and China’s top chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

Each of the telecommunications companies named by the NYSE is also listed in Hong Kong.

The NYSE said the issuers were no longer suitable for listing, as the order prohibits any transaction in securities “designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, from any Chinese Communist military company, by anyone in the United States.”

The NYSE said it would suspend operations on January 7 or 11. Issuers have the right to a review of the decision.

Ties between Washington and Beijing have grown increasingly antagonistic over the past year as the world’s two major economies argued over Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong, and the growing tensions in the South China Sea. – Reuters



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