What Can You Do Before and After a Delisting

Written by TeamEasy | May 20, 2025 7:00:00 AM

Okay, so your stock is getting delisted. Deep breaths. There might be opportunities in the chaos.

What is Delisting?
Delisting can be either voluntary or involuntary:

Voluntary Delisting: Companies may choose to delist to go private, reduce regulatory burdens, or restructure. This often occurs when management believes the company's value isn't accurately reflected in the public markets.
Involuntary Delisting: Occurs when a company fails to meet exchange requirements, such as minimum share price or financial reporting standards.

Assess the underlying reasons for delisting to determine potential impacts on your investment.

Here’s your checklist to make the best of a bad (or maybe just surprising) situation:

1. Read the fine print first
When a company announces delisting, you’ll typically get a circular or regulatory notice explaining why. Read it. It’ll tell you:

Is the company going private or merging?
Is this a financial rescue operation?
Will they offer a buyout or cash per share?
Will it move to an OTC (over-the-counter) market?
If there's a buyout offer, compare the price offered to the stock’s historical value. If it's a lowball, you can reject it or join forces with other shareholders to contest it.

2. Use the delisting as a value check
Delistings are often preceded by trouble: dropping revenue, scandal, or tight liquidity. But sometimes, especially in voluntary delistings, the company might be undervalued.

Look at the company’s fundamentals. If you believe in the long-term vision and it’s just being taken private, you might hold or buy more before it disappears off-exchange, but only if you’re comfortable with a long wait and low liquidity.

3. Use it as a spring-cleaning moment for your portfolio
Sometimes a delisting is a blessing in disguise.

Rebalance your portfolio
Shift funds to more stable, diversified investments
Reinvest in companies with strong fundamentals

4. Sign up for investor alerts & research tools
Many investors only notice delisting after it happens. Avoid surprises. Sign up for alerts on tools like: SENS, EasyEquities Blogs, Yahoo Finance or Google Alerts.

On EasyEquities, you can access more information after the market closes on the final trading day.

Be Curious, Not Complacent
Stocks delist for all sorts of reasons — not all of them bad. What matters is how you respond, not just what happens. Stay informed, stay flexible, and always treat each shake-up as a chance to get sharper with your money.

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