China’s Weibo says will evaluate options following SEC addition under HFCCA
March 24, 2022
(Adds dropped words “and”, “companies” in paragraph 1)
(Reuters) – Weibo Corp said on Thursday it will consider evaluating options in response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) addition of the Chinese social media platform to its list of U.S.-listed companies that face the risk of being delisted.
Washington has long demanded complete access to the books of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, but Beijing, citing national security concerns, bars foreign inspection of working papers from local accounting firms.
The U.S Congress passed the HFCCA, which compels the SEC to delist stocks of any company that does not comply. In December, the SEC finalised rules to delist Chinese companies under the HFCAA, and said it had identified 273 companies that were at risk, without naming them.
The SEC earlier this month named for the first time five of these firms, including KFC operator Yum China Holdings and biotech firm BeiGene Ltd, that could face delisting. It added Weibo to the list on Wednesday.
Yum China Holdings has also said it may have to delist from the New York stock exchange by 2024 after U.S. authorities said it had failed to provide access to audit documents.
According to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing sources, Chinese regulators have asked some of the country’s U.S.-listed firms, including Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com, to prepare for more audit disclosures, as Beijing steps up efforts to ensure domestic companies remain listed in New York. (This story corrects to add dropped words “and”, “companies” in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Eva Mathews and Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)