HONG KONG -- A team of U.S. auditing experts has arrived in Hong Kong with the fate of billions of dollars of Chinese stock market listings potentially in their hands.
The inspectors are in the city to look into the audit records of selected Chinese companies, following Washington's insistence that U.S. officials also be given access to the accounts. If the team is not happy with what it finds, then the roughly 200 Chinese companies listed on American markets could be forced to delist as early as next year.
All the inspectors and investigators are from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), established by Congress to oversee the audits of public companies.
Different groups of inspectors will arrive in Hong Kong at different times, a person with knowledge of the matter told Nikkei Asia. The first team departed the U.S. last Friday, local time, and started inspections on Monday.
The team is expected to focus on the auditing work of the Big Four accounting firms -- PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY -- which audit around 130 U.S.-listed mainland companies, or about 80% of the total.
The PCAOB will initially select just a handful of companies to inspect, though the total could reach 20. Its choices will be based on a number of factors that contribute to "the level of risk" posed to investors, including the size of the company and type of industry.
Potential targets include Alibaba, JD.com, and Yum China, KFC and Pizza Hut's Chinese operator. The inspections are retrospective, meaning ride-hailing company Didi Global -- which delisted from New York but is still traded off-exchange in the U.S. -- as well as the five state-owned enterprises that announced voluntary delisting from the U.S. last month could also be selected.
美国对中国上市公司的审计，今天开始了
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