China Eastern and China Southern have applied for a voluntary delisting of their US depositary shares from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) along with the deregistration of their shares and underlaying H shares. The airline will most likely commence the delisting process on January 23, 2023 by lodging notices to delist with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The delisting will take effect in next 10 days.
The filing by China Eastern Airlines read: “Whether or not the (US depositary shares) will be traded on the over-the-counter market thereafter will depend on the actions of shareholders and independent third parties, without the company’s involvement.
Both the airlines decided to delist based on many reasons, like subpar trading volume of US depositary shares relative to the worldwide trading volume of its H shares; the absence of follow-on financing of the US depositary shares since they were first listed; and the airlines' ability to raise sufficient capital from trading on the HKEX and Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) without the financial and administrative costs of an NYSE listing, the airlines said in the filing.
Both airlines are controlled by the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC).
With the opening of Chinese borders to international travel, both the airlines have ramped up their operational capacity. Besides the share prices of both airlines have risen in the last three months.