China's move to block Didi Chuxing Technology Co. from app stores just days after the ride-hailing giant's U.S. IPO has resulted in a 22% plunge in shares U.S. premarket trade Tuesday.
Didi said on Monday that the Cyberspace Administration of China's (CAC) ban on the app would have a significant impact on its revenue. As for existing customers with the app, the ban wouldn't affect them.
In premarket trading on Tuesday, shares are trading around $12 handle, or about a 22% discount from Friday's close. U.S. stocks were closed on Monday for holidays.
CAC ordered the ban after discovering the ride-hailing had illegally collected users' data. The Wall Street Journal noted that cybersecurity regulators had advised Didi to delay its U.S. IPO, but the company decided to go along with it anyways. Didi said it did not know the CAC decision ahead of the listing.
Furthermore, CAC expanded its latest crackdown on the tech industry beyond Didi, including two other US-listed firms -- Full Truck Alliance Co. and Kanzhun Ltd.
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"We are clearly in an era where the Chinese authorities are really quite thoughtfully considering how they want to regulate the tech industry and the internet industry and I think that just seems to me to be a completely reasonable thing to do on a rather young industry," Capital Group's Andy Budden told Bloomberg.
CAC's latest regulatory assault has turned IPO buyers into bagholders in a matter of days.
Meanwhile, Jim Cramer gave his blessing on Didi last week, saying, "I would try to get as many shares as you can!"
By Zerohedge.com
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