What's going on?

Didi announced on Friday that it�s delisting its shares from the US stock market, but the Chinese ride-hailing company already has its next destination in mind.

What does this mean?

The writing�s been on the wall for Didi almost since its initial public offering (IPO) in June ��one of the biggest-ever US listings of a Chinese company. Only a few days afterwards, Chinese regulators � worried that the company might leak sensitive data � scrubbed Didi from the country�s app stores and banned it from onboarding new users. The company lost more than 30% of its average daily users in just two months, and its stock fell over 40%.�

But regulators weren�t finished, telling Didi in late November to delist its shares from the US stock market altogether. Now, the downtrodden company has finally admitted defeat: it announced it would remove its stock from the New York Stock Exchange and list in Hong Kong instead.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Hong Kong is in for a good 2022.
Didi�s plan will be music to Hong Kong�s ears: the country�s stock exchange has been falling out of favor recently, with data out on Friday showing that it�s raised 20% less from IPOs this year than last. That might all change in 2022: Goldman Sachs has said that over half its Chinese clients who wanted to list in the US are now eyeing up Hong Kong, as they scramble to circumvent China�s tight restrictions on foreign listings.

Zooming out: SoftBank�s bad choices.
The 14% jump in Didi�s share price after the announcement was a much-needed win for SoftBank. The Japanese conglomerate � which owns around 20% of the company � had a tough week: its $40 billion sale of British chip designer Arm to Nvidia was just blocked by regulators, and Grab � the Singaporean ride-hailing firm in which SoftBank has a 19% stake � saw its share price fall 20% after it hit the US stock market.