Five months, this is the time that Didi Chuxing will have held between its introduction, at the end of June, and its decision to leave New York for Hong Kong, which will soon resume the listing of the group having lost, in the meantime, almost two-thirds of its capitalization (-63%).
On Friday, after the announcement, the e-commerce heavyweights Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo, all listed on Wall Street, were fled by investors.
Alibaba stock, whose entry with fanfare on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 kicked off Chinese mega-introductions, has fallen to its lowest level in almost five years, rumored to be the next candidate for the departure, after Didi.
Technically, despite the move from New York to Hong Kong, the owners of Didi shares will keep their securities and their investment is not going to evaporate.
But "people fear the regulations and the Chinese government," said Kevin Carter, manager of the listed fund (ETF) EMQQ, specializing in emerging markets.
"They are afraid."
Coincidentally, the US financial market regulatory authority, the SEC, announced Thursday that the accounts of foreign companies listed in the United States should be able to be audited, otherwise they would be removed from the listing.
"More than 50 jurisdictions (...) have allowed inspections," commented SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, "but two never have: China (mainland) and Hong Kong."
"Sensitive data"
In a column, published Friday and unsigned, of the Global Times, a newspaper close to the Chinese Communist Party, this new regulation is accused of allowing the American authorities to "spy on the internal situation of China and store large amounts of sensitive data collected by Chinese companies ".
“China will not accept this,” the authors conclude.
Many of these securities listed on Wall Street are predominantly held not by individuals but by institutional investors.
However, "a certain number of funds must have only actions which are traded on the American markets", underlines Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Financial Services.
"That's what puts pressure on the titles."
And for many, the "Chinese Uber" is just the first domino to fall.
"It is not specific to Didi since we have seen for months the influence of the Communist Party being more and more heavy on the companies", estimates Gregori Volokhine.
Shortly after Didi went public, the truck booking platform Full Truck Alliance and job search site Kanzhun were investigated by the Chinese Cybersecurity Supervisory Authority.
The Chinese government has also operated a regulatory tightening of the screw in the private tutoring sector, which has largely penalized several players listed on Wall Street.
According to figures from a US government agency, dated May, some 248 Chinese companies were listed in the United States, with a market capitalization of 2.1 trillion dollars.
After an "active" start to the year, Chinese companies "have, for the most part, stopped raising funds by going public in the United States, due to political and regulatory obstacles", according to Matthew Kennedy, strategist for the Renaissance Capital firm.
This week, the Chinese school support network Spark Education gave up its "IPO" (introduction).
"Under the current circumstances, we can say that there will be no more Chinese IPOs and that those which are still in the + pipeline + (35 according to Renaissance) will be withdrawn one after the other", abounds Mr. Volokhine. .
By deserting the North American market, Chinese companies are depriving themselves of a unique investor base, which weighs around 52.5 trillion dollars, against only 7.100 for China, according to a report by McKinsey (2020).
For Kevin Carter, this political pressure coup has created an aberrant situation, which sees the Chinese flagships of technology melting on the stock market without their results being in question.
"These companies are always profitable, always growing", argues the manager.
On average, their turnover is up more than 30%, he says.
"It doesn't matter where their shares are listed."
© 2021 AFP