The only thing delisting does is that the stock doesn't trade on whatever exchange it got delisted from. It would still exist and you would still own it. No one is going to pay you out. It would trade over the counter.
Once a company delists its shares, you can no longer sell those shares on publicly listed exchanges. However, your stake in the company can be maintained until you choose to sell the shares through other avenues. These other avenues can be through finding a buyer using off-the-counter markets.
If a company is delisted, you are still a shareholder, to the extent of a number of shares held. And yet, you cannot sell those shares on any exchange. However, you can sell it on the over-the-counter market. This means you can look for a buyer outside the stock exchange.
Delisting can provide the company with greater operational flexibility. Public companies operate under the intense scrutiny of investors and market analysts, which creates pressure to deliver short-term results, typically reflected in quarterly earnings reports.
The Impact of Delisting on Investors
However, a delisted stock often experiences significant or total devaluation. Therefore, even though a stockholder may still technically own the stock, they will likely experience a significant reduction in ownership. In some cases, stockholders can lose everything.
So though the shares are not traded on the stock exchanges after delisting, they are still there in your demat account. So, delisting cannot amount to extinguishment of the shares or your rights in the shares.
You don't automatically lose money as an investor, but being delisted carries a stigma and is generally a sign that a company is bankrupt, near-bankrupt, or can't meet the exchange's minimum financial requirements for other reasons. Delisting also tends to prompt institutional investors to not continue to invest.
Yes, a delisted stock can be re-listed on a major exchange like the NYSE or Nasdaq if the company subsequently meets all of the exchange's listing requirements. This typically involves getting the stock price above the minimum threshold, meeting financial benchmarks, and filing up-to-date financial reports.
If the security cannot be sold in the market, it may be possible to dispose of the worthless security by gifting it to another person who can be related or unrelated to you. If you gift the worthless security to a family member, you will need to ensure that the person is not your spouse or minor child.
Value of Shares: The value of delisted shares may drop, especially if the delisting is due to financial issues. This can result in significant losses for shareholders.
If you still hold shares after they are delisted, you can sell them—just not on the exchange on which they traded before. Stock exchanges are very advantageous for buying and selling shares. When they delist and trade over the counter (OTC), selling shares and getting a reasonable price for them becomes much harder.
If you own securities, including stocks, and they become totally worthless, you have a capital loss but not a deduction for bad debt. Worthless securities also include securities that you abandon.
When a stock is delisted, options trading on that stock typically ceases. This means that options holders are no longer able to buy or sell their options on the open market. However, they still have the right to exercise their options if they choose to do so.
Companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market must meet requirements for continued listing. If a company can't maintain the minimum requirements to remain listed, Nasdaq will delist it. Failure of a company to meet a minimum closing bid price of at least $1 for 30 consecutive trading days can trigger delisting.
If a stock becomes delisted, the liquidity drops immensely. In fact, they are considered illiquid. In many cases, they are untradeable on most brokerage platforms that don't support OTCBB or Pink Sheets trading.
The Bottom Line. A delisting does not directly affect shareholders' rights or claims on the delisted company. It will, however, often depress the share price and make holdings harder to sell, even as thousands of securities trade over-the-counter.
When a stock's value falls to zero, or near zero, it typically signals that the company is bankrupt. The stocks are frozen and unless the company restructures, it's likely you will lose your investment.
What Happens to Shareholders When a Company Goes Private? Shareholders agree to accept the offer to be bought out by investors. They give up ownership in the company in exchange for a premium price that's paid for each share they own. They can no longer buy shares in the company through a broker.
The value of shares doesn't automatically rise or fall with a delisting, but when an involuntary listing takes place, it's often a sign that a company is approaching bankruptcy. In this case, there's a chance investors might lose their investment.
A drop in price to zero means the investor loses his or her entire investment: a return of -100%. To summarize, yes, a stock can lose its entire value. However, depending on the investor's position, the drop to worthlessness can be either good (short positions) or bad (long positions).
If you own a stock where the company has declared bankruptcy and the stock has become worthless, you can generally deduct the full amount of your loss on that stock — up to annual IRS limits with the ability to carry excess losses forward to future years.
What happens when an investor maintains a short position in a company that gets delisted and declares bankruptcy? The answer is simple: The investor never has to pay back anyone because the shares are worthless. Companies sometimes declare bankruptcy with little warning. Other times, there is a slow fade to the end.
Simple. Submit a Remat request and make the shares physical. Than they will be removed from the demat electronic form and sent to you from the registrar in physical paper form.