Three Chinese companies have formally terminated their Nasdaq listing bids since April, in a relatively unusual step suggesting they are being abandoned by their underwriters
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Key Takeaways:
- Three small Chinese companies have withdrawn their Nasdaq IPO applications in the last month and a half, all for listings with fundraising targets of $20 million or less
- The increased withdrawals could signal pressure from the companies’ underwriters, which are being pressured by Washington to crack down on “pump and dump” listings
Something new is happening on the way to the market. In the last month and a half, three Chinese firms that were seeking to list in New York have formally withdrawn their applications, including two this month. While it’s hardly uncommon for companies to fail in their listing attempts, an open admission of failure is a bit more unusual.
In this case, the flurry of formal withdrawals looks directly tied to an ongoing crackdown on suspicious “pump and dump” Chinese listing by regulators and politicians on both sides of the Pacific. While we can’t say for sure whether these three new withdrawals fall into that category, they certainly fit the profile with their small fundraising targets.
The three recent withdrawals – compared with just two by Chinese companies in the first three months of 2026 – suggests that forces are moving behind the scenes to pressure the companies to take this action. That pressure is part of an increasingly hostile environment on Wall Street towards Chinese companies that has caused new listings from the group, both large and small, to essentially disappear this year.
As you might expect, the three withdrawn IPO applications dating back to early April all come from obscure companies with equally obscure underwriters. That trio includes financial software maker Going International Holding, which withdrew its $20 million offering underwritten by Prime Number Capital on April 1. That was followed by Xinxu Copper Industry’s withdrawal of its $17 million IPO underwritten by Craft Capital Management and R.F. Lafferty & Co. on May 6. A day later, health products distributor Aixin Life International withdrew its application for a $10 million listing underwritten by Boustead Securities.
“The company has determined at this time not to proceed with the offering and requests that the (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) consent to this application on the grounds that withdrawal of the registration statement is consistent with the public interest and the protection of investors,” Aixin said in its filing requesting the withdrawal. Other withdrawals contained similarly vague statements.
Earlier this year, advertising services company Lemeng Holdings also withdrew its $20 million IPO application in February, while another advertising firm, Unitrend Entertainment, withdrew its plan for a tiny $6 million IPO in January.
Companies frequently abandon their listing applications to stock exchanges around the world after repeatedly failing to satisfy regulators and exchange operators that they are qualified to list. But in most cases, the companies just quietly abandon their IPO bids rather than make this kind of formal withdrawal. The withdrawals seem to represent a formal admission of failure, and, in this case, hint of behind-the-scenes pressure to take such action.
Such pressure could be coming on a number of fronts, including from the companies’ own underwriters, or from the Nasdaq, securities regulator or politicians in the U.S. Similar pressure could also be coming from China’s own securities regulator, which must approve all overseas listings by Chinese companies.
Everyone is trying to rid the U.S. market of small Chinese companies that engage in “pump and dump” listings on Wall Street. A typical case is Pomdoctor Ltd. (NASDAQ:POM), which sold IPO shares last October for $4 each. The stock initially rose above $5, until one day in December, when it suddenly tanked to $0.50 from its $5.42 close the previous day. The stock now trades at about $0.13, meaning anyone who bought IPO shares has lost nearly all their investment.
Political crackdown
On the U.S. side, the latest crackdown on these suspicious listings came in March from the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. The committee sent letters to three small investment banks that underwrote a large number of Chinese listings on Wall Street, demanding information about the companies’ handling of the listings.
It’s quite possible that this very public display has scared not only the three underwriters that received letters, but most of the other small underwriters that handle such listings, including names like Revere Securities, Prime Number Capital, Boustead Securities, Pacific Century Securities and Kingswood Capital Partners. It’s quite possible these underwriters have refused to keep supporting many of their Chinese listings still in progress, and requested the companies to formally withdraw their listing applications.
Last year, the Nasdaq also announced new rules that would require new Chinese listings to raise at least $25 million from their IPOs, and would expedite forced delistings of companies that failed to maintain public floats of at least $5 million. Those new rules still required approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Nasdaq has yet to announce if the SEC has given its go-ahead.
Then there’s the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), which has also been cracking down on these smaller listings, probably out of concerns about the broader reputation of Chinese companies on global capital markets. While the CSRC hasn’t formally announced any formal crackdown, its approval of new Nasdaq listings by Chinese companies has come to a near standstill lately.
Before April, the last Chinese company approved for a U.S. listing by the CSRC was Londian Wason New Energy Tech Inc., whose application got the official green light on Dec. 12. That was followed by a five-month absence of any new U.S. listing approvals, which finally ended on April 24 with an approval for DSC Holdings. No new Chinese companies have been approved since then, meaning the CSRC has approved just two new U.S. listing by Chinese firms in the last five months.
The listing logjam is part of broader U.S.-China tensions, with U.S. politicians worried about Chinese companies using U.S. capital markets to fund companies in sensitive areas like AI and emerging high-tech areas like new energy. These smaller “pump and dump” listings don’t really fall into that category, and instead the crackdown on that group is more of a routine anti-fraud campaign aimed at protecting investors.
Still, the concurrent crackdown on these smaller IPOs, combined with the increasingly hostile environment towards larger Chinese listings from companies in sensitive areas, seems to be the latest step in closing off Wall Street to fundraising by Chinese firms. While no one is completely closing the doors on such listings, at least not yet, Chinese companies seeking to tap global investors are likely to feel far more comfortable going forward in Hong Kong, which is rapidly emerging as a far friendlier place for offshore Chinese listings.
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Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
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