ZTE Soars After U.S. Signs Deal to Lift Tech-Purchase Ban
ZTE Corp. took another step toward ending a U.S. ban on the company doing business with American suppliers
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(Bloomberg) -- ZTE Corp.’s shares surged after it inked an agreement with the Trump administration to allow the company to resume doing business with American suppliers, meeting a key Chinese government demand amid escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The Chinese telecoms gear-maker signed an escrow agreement with the Commerce Department and a ban on U.S. technology purchases will lift as soon as ZTE deposits $400 million, the department said in an emailed statement Wednesday. A person familiar with the matter said the escrow payment should be completed within a day.
ZTE last month took a major step forward in meeting the White House’s conditions by sacking its entire board and appointing a new chairman. Its new management faces the challenge of rebuilding trust with phone companies and corporate customers. But the company is said to be facing at least $3 billion in total losses from a months-long moratorium that choked off the chips and other components needed to make its networking gear and smartphones.
Shares in ZTE, which is currently operating on a temporary waiver that expires Aug. 1, soared as much as 24 percent in Hong Kong. Its Shenzhen-listed stock rose by its 10-percent daily limit. Several of its suppliers, including Zhong Fu Tong Group Co., also rose sharply on mainland Chinese bourses.
“As ZTE is finally near the end of the tunnel, we believe its current stock price incorporates an overly pessimistic view on the settlement,” Edison Lee and Timothy Chau, analysts for Jefferies, wrote in a note Thursday. “Assuming ZTE will be able to get back into business next week, we believe the market will start focusing on its earnings prospects.”
ZTE representatives had met with Commerce Department officials on Monday to discuss a path forward for the deal, people familiar with the meeting said on condition of anonymity.
“Once the monitor is selected and brought on board, the three-pronged compliance regime -- the new 10-year suspended denial order, the $400 million escrow, and the monitor -- will be in place,” Commerce said in the statement. “The ZTE settlement represents the toughest penalty and strictest compliance regime the Department has ever imposed in such a case. It will deter future bad actors and ensure the Department is able to protect the United States from those that would do us harm.”
Path Forward
The Trump administration in April announced a seven-year ban on U.S. exports to ZTE after it said the company violated sanctions agreements by selling American technology to Iran and North Korea. The ban forced ZTE to announce it was shutting down.
Then President Donald Trump reversed course in May, saying he was reconsidering penalties on ZTE as personal favor to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Later that month, his administration announced it would allow the company to stay in business after paying a $1.3 billion fine, changing its management and providing “high-level security guarantees.”
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers remains concerned about ZTE’s threat to U.S. national security and is pushing for legislation aimed at restoring harsher penalties. Wednesday marks the start of negotiations on legislation that will try to balance concerns that ZTE presents a security risk with efforts to get the company back into business.
--With assistance from Edwin Chan and Gao Yuan.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Jenny Leonard in Washington at jleonard67@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Murray at brmurray@bloomberg.net, Mike Dorning, Reed Stevenson
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