BEIJING, March 31 (TMTPOST)— More and more listed companies in China chose share buybacks in the ongoing uncertain regulatory environment. A total of four US-listed Chinese firms announced the similar move on Thursday alone.

Source: Visual China

Weibo Corporation (Nasdaq: WB and HKEX: 9898), a Twitter-like social media owned by Sina, unveiled an up to US$500 million American depository shares (ADSs) repurchase program during a twelve-month period ending on March 31, 2023. Vipshop Holdings Limited (NYSE: VIPS), an e-commerce platform operator, said it would repurchase ADSs or Class A ordinary shares worth of US$1 billion in the next twenty four months. Xunlei Limited (Nasdaq: XNET), a specialist in shared computing and blockchain technology, is set to repurchase no more than US$20 million ADSs or common shares, over the next twelve months.  Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: KC), a cloud service provider, said it may have up to US$100 million ADS buybacks in a twelve-month period. These companies said they will conduct their buybacks on the open market, while ADSs of most of them, except Kingsoft Cloud, settled lower that day, erasing up to 8% of gains in the morning trading.

These actions highlight a recent wave of buybacks led by tech giants. More than a week ago, Alibaba upsized its share repurchase program by 60% to US$25 billion, making the size of the buyback program to the highest in the company’s nearly seven-year history and setting the buyback record for a Chinese firm listed outside the mainland China. On March, 22, the same day of Alibaba’s annoucement, Xiaomi, a leading smart phone maker, said it would repurchase shares in the Hong Kong open market from time to time at a maximum aggregate price of HK$10 billion. Earlier this week, Tencent Holdings Ltd, WeChat’s owner, disclosed it has launched repurchase Hong Kong shares worth of HK$300 million.

A day before four companies’ buyback announcements, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) added five more Chinese firms, including the internet giant Baidu and video streaming site iQiyi, to a list that could lead to being delisted from U.S. exchanges under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA). About three weeks ago, the agency added five Chinese issuers—Yum China, the operator of popular fast-food restaurant chains KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell’ subsidiary in China, the semiconductor process equipment manufacturer ACM Research to the delisting list, for the first time identifying Chinese listed companies for failing to comply with the law.

This is the U.S. regulator’s standard procedure to implement HFCAA, and whether the companies added to the list will be delisted from U.S. stock market  in the coming two years ultimately depends on the progress and result of the auditing cooperation between Chinese and American regulators, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)’s international department commented on the SEC’s move on Thursday.

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