Chinese ride-hail giant DiDi said it will delist from the New York Stock Exchange, following a Chinese government crackdown on foreign listings.
Why it matters: This reflects how geopolitical tensions are bleeding into the capital markets.
Backstory: DiDi isn't just the Uber of China. It's the company that beat Uber in China, buying up the U.S. company's business before going public this past June at a $73 billion valuation.
- What wasn't known at the time was that Chinese officials had asked DiDi to postpone the IPO, over concerns that sensitive data could fall into foreign hands.
- Just days after its stock began trading, China banned DiDi from app stores. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials recently asked the company to devise plans to delist from the U.S.
- Its current market cap is $37 billion.
Also: U.S. securities regulators today finalized rules to forcibly delist Chinese companies that fail to abide by certain auditing requirements, although that doesn't seem to apply to DiDi.
What next: The company said in a Weibo post that it plans to relist its shares in Hong Kong. A spokesperson for the NYSE didn't return a request for comment.
The bottom line: DiDi is delisting under duress.
