The Chinese companies which have been put under the pump and blacklisted from the American stock exchange by President Donald Trump are betting their fortunes on Democrat leader Joe Biden to stage a comeback. While the blacklisted companies are eyeing an opportunity to sneak into the innards of the US stock market, some other ambitious Chinese companies — sensing a weaker stance from Washington headed by Biden, have started throwing their fishing nets in the water. According to news reports, Chinese e-cigarette maker RLX Technology is planning to raise $1.2 billion from a US initial public offering (IPO), in the coming weeks.
Three Chinese companies have already raised a combined $315 million since the 1st of January, 2021, through New York IPOs and the trend is expected to continue with RLX.
RLX Technology, founded in 2018, is China’s largest e-cigarette maker. Its revenue in the first nine months of 2020 stood at 2.2 billion yuan ($339.4 million) compared with 1.14 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.
Andrew Collier, managing director of Hong Kong-based Oriental Capital Research said, “There is a belief the Biden administration may take a softer touch toward regulatory issues… That is prompting companies to still go ahead and sell shares in the world’s biggest capital market.”
The company’s offering comes at a time when in November last year, Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting American investors from investing in Chinese companies. The order prohibits American companies and individuals from owning shares — outright or through investment funds — in companies, the administration says help the advancement of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
As reported by TFI, the US Department of Defense blacklisted Xiaomi due to the aforementioned executive order signed by Donald Trump.
Read more: Trump makes a massive move to decouple the US from China, bans all investment in PLA-linked firms
Reported extensively by TFI, the Trump administration has tried everything in the book to keep Chinese companies at bay but it has been the American corporates with their greed that have allowed the Chinese firms to prosper. The Chinese arm of US fund Sequoia Capital is a key backer of RLX and that explains the courage of the company to enter the US with Trump still in power.
Read more: The umbilical cord that extends from USA’s Wall Street to Beijing is a major threat to America
While a Chinese company getting listed on the stock exchange will be an ‘egg on the face moment’ for Biden but what happens afterward will further tell the global audience about Biden’s stance on China and its state-backed companies.
As reported by TFI, a bill mooted by Trump and recently passed by the Congress can force Chinese companies to delist from American exchanges unless they comply with the USA’s accounting rules.
It is imperative to note that Beijing does not allow American authorities to examine the audit-books of listed Chinese companies. and these companies are accused of misleading American investors. The conspicuous communist nation claims that the audit-books are national secrets and cannot be shared with other parties. Therefore, it will be interesting to observe how the Biden administration overcomes this anomaly.
If the US under Biden allows the Chinese company to offer its IPO, it would be a crude joke to the common American people. When Jack Ma, China’s richest man made some critical remarks about the Chinese financial regulators, his company Ant Group, and its IPO was tanked by Xi Jinping. And while China continues to hurt the US by decimating local companies, indulging in intellectual property theft, using United Front activists – the Democrats seem keen to shower love on Beijing.
If Trump were to stay in power, forget the IPO, Chinese companies would not have dared to chalk out a strategy to get anywhere near the American shores but with Trump gone and the Democrats trying their level best to stop him from contesting elections in the next Presidential elections, the future of the American stock market looks set to be dominated by hostile Chinese companies.
The first week after Biden’s coronation will be crucial and it will indicate the sincerity of his duty towards the American public. We hope that he proves us wrong but the chances of it happening, going by the past track record, seems quite infinitesimal, at the moment.