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Beijing Shiji Information Technology's stock price fell by the daily exchange-imposed limit after the Trump administration ordered the Chinese firm to sell StayNTouch on the grounds that its ownership of the US hotel management software maker could present a danger to US national interests. The Beijing-based firm will reluctantly comply with the March 6 executive order from President Donald Trump to fully offload its holding in StayNTouch within a mandated 120 days, it said in a statement yesterday. The company can postpone the sale for up to 90 days with approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US. Millions of hotels worldwide use Maryland-based StayNTouch's hotel information management system and the firm claims a more than 60 percent market share in China's starred hotels, according to Shiji's website. It began expanding in the European and US markets in 2015 and now owns information service assets in Germany, Austria, Spain and Portugal. Shiji began its buyout of StayNTouch in January 2016 by taking a 15 percent stake and bought more step by step until September 2018 when it owned all of the business. The firm spent around CNY241 million (USD34.8 million) on the acquisition, it calculates. |
