New York Stock Exchange to delist Chinese property company Danke for failing to report financial results, respond to exchange queries

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Delisting comes after Danke, formally known as Phoenix Tree Holdings, failed to report financial results, respond to NYSE inquiries

WeWork-like residential property company has not reported financial results since first-quarter 2020

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Banner on the New York Stock Exchange Building celebrating the IPO of the Chinese online residential renting company Danke on January 17, 2020. Photo: Handout

Chad Bray

Published: 1:00pm, 7 Apr 2021Updated: 2:55pm, 7 Apr 2021

The New York Stock Exchange said it planned to delist the Chinese online home platform Danke for failing to report its financial results in a timely fashion and for failing to respond to repeated requests from the American bourse’s regulatory arm.

The property company, formally known as Phoenix Tree Holdings with a business model similar to WeWork, has not reported its financial results since the first quarter of 2020 when it posted a net loss of 1.23 billion yuan (US$188 million). Founded in 2015, Danke reported full-year losses in the previous three years.

“The company has not provided information requested by NYSE Regulation in February and March 2021,” the NYSE said in an April 6 statement. “Separately, it has also come to the attention of NYSE Regulation that the company has failed to make timely, adequate, and accurate disclosures of information to its shareholders and the investing public.”

Shares of the company, which traded in New York under the Phoenix Tree name using the mnemonic DNK, had been suspended since March 15 pending the delisting, NYSE said. The stock had lost 75 per cent of value in the past 12 months, plunging 82 per cent since its initial public offering in January 2020. Danke did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

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Gloves off at top-level US-China summit in Alaska with on-camera sparring

The Beijing-based company faced questions about its financial viability after claims in November that it pocketed upfront payments from tenants and failed to pay landlords, leading to a series of evictions and harsh criticism in state media.

Danke faced additional scrutiny after the December 3 death of a 20-year-old graduate student who fell from a 18th floor flat he rented in Guangzhou and stopped listings on its home rental referral app in China in late December.