Chinese ride-hailing firm DiDi Chuxing will begin the process of delisting from the New York Stock Exchange as it plans to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company announced late Thursday.
The exit comes less than six months after the company raised $4.4 billion in its IPO, giving it a valuation of $69 billion. Bloomberg reported last week that Chinese regulators asked the company to create a plan to delist from the U.S. market due to concerns over sensitive data leakage.
If Beijing hadn’t acted, Washington might have eventually forced DiDi to delist. American and Chinese authorities have been fighting for nearly a decade and a half over the issue of audit oversight for Chinese companies that list their shares in the U.S. The SEC finalized a rule Thursday that would require such companies to make their audits available for inspection to U.S. regulators, though it would not take effect immediately.
DiDi said in its announcement that its shares would be “convertible into freely tradable shares” on the other stock exchange.
The company previously upset Chinese regulators when it forged ahead with its U.S. public offering without being fully cleared by the country’s Cyberspace Administration. The administration suspended DiDi from the country’s app stores in July after it was found to be illegally collecting users’ personal data. DiDi also received harsh penalties for not reporting past mergers and acquisitions prior to completing an antitrust review.
With nearly 500 million monthly active users, DiDi is the largest ride-hailing app in China. Uber sold its Chinese business to DiDi in 2016, giving it a large stake in the company.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE