By Rob Garver
A long-running battle between U.S. securities regulators and Chinese companies that sell their shares in the United States is expected to result in five large state-controlled Chinese firms leaving the New York Stock Exchange, with other departures possible in the future.
Last week, oil company Sinopec, China Life Insurance Company, Aluminum Corporation of China Limited, PetroChina, and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical announced that they would voluntarily delist from the NYSE.
The immediate effect for investors who have purchased shares of the five firms will be an exchange of what are known as American Depository Receipts, which trade in the U.S., for shares of the firms that trade in Hong Kong. But what it means for the larger number of investors who hold shares in the hundreds of Chinese firms listed on U.S. exchanges is less clear.
