Alibaba may be booted off NYSE

Shares in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group fell by 4% last week amid fears that it could be kicked off the New York Stock Exchange.

Alibaba signage at the New York Stock Exchange
(Image credit: © Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Shares in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group fell by 4% last week amid “escalating concerns that the stock may be booted off” the New York Stock Exchange in two years “for failing to comply with US disclosure rules”, says Jenny Yu on Bloomberg.

The US on Friday added the stock to a “growing roster” of Chinese companies facing removal from US exchanges. The problem stems from the fact that a law passed two years ago means that Chinese companies are required to submit their audits to regulators so that their quality can be reviewed, something that Beijing refuses to allow. Alibaba could temper the impact of a potential de-listing in the US by accelerating its plans to upgrade its Hong Kong stock-exchange presence from a secondary to a primary listing, says Iris Deng in the South China Morning Post.

That would help create a “wider and more diversified investor base” as it would give mainland Chinese investors direct access to the group’s shares via the Stock Connect programme. Meanwhile there is hope that the US and Beijing could reach a deal with both sides in discussions to resolve the “accounting spat”.

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Still, even if Beijing does make enough concessions to allow Alibaba to remain in America, Alibaba has other problems to grapple with, says Oliver Telling in the Financial Times.

It has been “hit by Beijing’s crackdown on the technology sector”, while a foray into the American e-commerce market has been botched. No wonder, then, that its Hong Kong-listed stock has slumped by 70% since 2020.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri