US Treasury spokesperson Monica Crowley partially denied the report that US is considering to de-list some Chinese companies from US exchanges. She said in a statement that “the administration is not contemplating blocking Chinese companies from listing shares on U.S. stock exchanges at this time.”
The statement was in response to a Bloomberg report that White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow was leading deliberations regarding a potential “financial decoupling” of US and China. Options discussed included forced delisting of Chinese companies, imposition of investment in China by US government pension funds, and limits on value of Chinese companies in US managed indexes. However, it’s later said that the deliberations are at very early stage, without even a time line.
Separately, Reuters reported that Nasdaq is already cracking down on IPO s of small Chinese companies, by tightening restrictions and slowing down approvals. The new listing rules raised the average trading volume requirements for a stock. Additionally, Nasdaq could delay listing of a company that does not demonstrate a strong enough nexus to the US capital markets. While not being directly targeted, small Chinese IPOs have experienced longer waiting times and scrutiny.
